Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has read, alerted and reviewed. I tried to reply to many of the reviews but I've fallen very behind. I really do appreciate everyone who takes the time to write them.
Steve took a deep breath and enjoyed standing in his own living room. If maybe he was also waiting for the dizziness to pass, Cat and Kono didn't need to know that.
"Seems like it's been a long time since you left, huh boss?" Kono asked.
"Yes it does," he agreed. "Did Rachel start her new job already?"
"No, Stan's on the big island today," Kono explained, "He told her that she could go over to the house and pack up her things and all of Grace's stuff. She just has to be done before he gets back. I think she and Danny rented a storage unit."
Catherine emerged from the kitchen, where she had been setting out Steve's various prescriptions. "Hey Sailor, who don't you sit down before you fall down." She hadn't missed the stiffness in his movements, or the way he jerked as his stitches rubbed against his clothing. "Maybe you should go upstairs and lie down?"
"No," Steve was adamant, "I've been in bed for days. I want to sit outside on the lanai."
He took a few steps towards the backdoor before stopping to glare at the two women hovering around him, "Back off!"
Both women grinned sheepishly, peeling off to give him some space. Kono went to double check the house's security system, plus a few other little surprises she had set-up on the property.
Catherine headed back into the kitchen to put together a light lunch.
Steve settled gingerly into one of the lounge chairs, slowly relaxing in the sunshine and ocean breeze. A few minutes later, he was asleep.
H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50
Charlie Fong and Ben Kukua were both staring at Chin expectantly. Danny thought they looked like puppies waiting for praise for demonstrating an exceptional trick.
Chin looked up from the sheets of paper spread across the table in front of him, "Danny, these are the serial numbers for the money from the HPD forfeiture locker."
"And that's making these two act like grinning idiots because . . ." Danny prompted.
"There are two sets of numbers," Charlie burst out.
Now Danny and Chin were also grinning like idiots.
"It was the Governor's office that supplied the serial numbers that implicated Kono," Danny realized.
"Exactly," Chin agreed, "They'll have to close the investigation against her."
Chin made some phone calls to set up the necessary meetings with IA, while Danny worked with Fong to put together their presentation for the investigators. After he finished the calls, Chin waited with Ben while Danny and Fong finished up.
"You've done a good job here," Chin praised him.
"Thank you, sir." The younger officer took a moment to gather his courage, "I hope this isn't appropriate. I was hoping that you would ask for me to be assigned to your unit. I'd like to work for you, sir."
Chin was taken by surprise. He had been so focused on clearing Steve and Kono that he never thought beyond that goal. His first instinct was to tell Kukua that Five-0 was a closed unit, but he stopped. Chin didn't know what would happen beyond this case.
He settled for a general evasion, "I appreciate that. I would be honored to work with you."
Ben seemed satisfied. Danny, on the other hand, had finished with Fong and was giving Chin a hard stare. Chin looked away, unable to look his friend in the eye. He wanted things to be like they were before, but Chin was a realist.
"If you're ready, let's get going. We need to get to our meeting with Gage," Chin walked out without waiting to see if Danny was behind him.
Danny followed more slowly. His divorce, Gracie moving to Hawaii, Mattie fleeing – Danny knew that life didn't always turn out the way he wanted it to. That didn't mean he wasn't unfairly angry at Chin for the alternatives.
H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50
Steve leaned back in his chair and watched Catherine napping in the early afternoon sun. He felt like crushing weight had been lifted from his chest. It had been almost an hour earlier that Chin had called to tell them that Kono had been reinstated.
She had to leave immediately to join Chin and Danny on a raid of Duke Taro's house. HPD had located an address for the now deceased gang member. Hopefully, they would find some evidence leading back to the person who had sent Taro to kill Steve at the hospital.
Kono had been worried that she was leaving Steve vulnerable to another attack. He wasn't worried. The effects of the concussion were truly almost gone. The various cuts, bruises, and stitches were nothing he hadn't dealt with before. Plus, he knew that Catherine could handle herself in a bad situation. If someone wanted to start something, Steve was confident they could finish it.
Still, it was a little unnerving when that thought was immediately followed by the sound of vehicles in the driveway.
Steve leaped out of his chair faster than he should have and ha to take a moment to let some of the lingering dizziness pass. The motion woke Catherine, who also heard the car engines and was instantly on her feet.
They exchanged a look before heading silently into the house. Cat took a second to arm the alarm from the panel by the backdoor, while Steve peered cautiously through the front curtains, trying to see their uninvited guests.
He recognized the man standing in his driveway from the news reports he watched in the hospital. Catherine started at him with concern when he swore rather creatively.
"Governor Page," Steve reported.
"What? Here?" Catherine asked, trying to understand what was going on even as Steve moved to answer the knock on the front door.
Steve yanked the door open and glared the members of the Governor's security staff. Several of them had been part of Jameson's security detail. The suspicion that filled the air was palpable.
Catherine raced back to the beeping alarm panel to disarm it before the system brought a bunch of police officers to complete the tableaux at the front door.
Patrick Page stepped past his men, "Mr. McGarrett, it's good to see you back on your feet. In light of your recent injuries, I felt that it would be better if we met here, instead of making you come down to my office."
"I didn't realize we were meeting," Steve held his ground in the doorway for a beet before standing aside so that Page could enter the house.
Page's staff didn't attempt to follow him inside. Instead, they spread out to pre-arranged positions on the front porch. Steve noted how carefully Page was choreographing everything about this encounter.
The Governor paused, clearly expecting McGarrett to offer him a seat. Steve had very little use for social nicety. He stayed just inside the front door, keeping Page fixed with what Danny referred to as his thousand yard death glare.
Page nodded at him, "Fine. I appreciate a man who doesn't waste time. First, I'd like to offer you an apology. A police station and a hospital are two of the places where you should be safest and we were unable to provide that safety." He paused for a breath, allowing Steve time to respond, but Steve stayed silent so Page continued, "I met with the District Attorney this morning. You were clearly on the right track with your investigation of Jameson. Which brings me to the second reason for my visit – Mr. McGarrett, after consulting with Captain Crosby, the head of my special taskforce on crime, we've concluded that to ensure your safety we're going to arrange a place for you in the witness protection program until this investigation can be completed. Captain Crosby wanted to be here himself to explain all the details but his taskforce got a lead on a very important case. After the service you have given to your country, this is the least we can do for you."
Steve stalked forward until he and Page were face-to-face. "First, I continue to service my country. I am still an active member of the naval reserves. As a former military man yourself, I think you can understand that I have earned the right to be addressed by my rank – Lieutenant Commander."
"You are absolutely right, Lt. Commander. I apologize again," Page seemed sincere, as if he were truly concerned for Steve's well being.
"Do you apologize for the rest of that bullshit, too?" Steve asked. "You're not concerned about my safety. That's what you're worried about," Steve gestured to the morning newspaper Danny had left laying on the coffee table.
The front page was split between only two stores. The top of the page screamed: NEW FIVE-0 BOMBS IN DEBUT. It was accompanied by a photo of the burning warehouse. The bottom half of the page shouted: MCGARRETT FREED FROM FALSE CHARGES. Under the headline was a photo of a very handsome Lt. Commander wearing his dress uniform at a formal dinner several months before at the Governor's mansion.
Page's eyes flashed angrily before he controlled his temper, "McGarrett, you will not be part of this investigation. I respect everything you have done for the navy, the United States, and the state of Hawaii, but if I catch you anywhere near the investigation of Jameson's murder, I will throw you back in jail."
"I'll keep that in mind," Steve assured him.
The two men stared hard at each other, neither wanting to stand down first.
Catherine had been watching the confrontation from the sidelines, waiting to see how it would play out. She stepped forward to remind the men that she was still there.
"Governor Page, we appreciate the offer and Steve will give it all the consideration that it merits." She flashed her boyfriend a warning glare to keep him quiet, "If he wants to take you up on it, we'll let you know." She pointedly opened the front door.
Page gave them both a last, considering look before he left.
H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50
Danny pulled the Camero up to the curb behind a red Cruz. Kono and Chin go out of the Chevy when they saw him.
"This is Duke Taro's house?" Danny asked.
"HPD seems to be having trouble finding anything on Taro, but our friend Kamekona was able to get us this address," Chin confirmed. "Taro didn't own this house but he was supposedly staying here."
"Whose house is it? Do we have a warrant?" Danny felt a tinge he asked the question. Damn, he missed Steve.
Maybe Chin and Kono felt the same way because no one said anything for a minute.
"The warrant's right here," Chin finally told him. "We were able to get it because Taro is tied to the utilities."
"He hid out in someone else's house, but he put the utilities in his own name?" Danny was incredulous, "He was smart enough to build car bombs?"
Kono laughed, "Nope, utilities are in the home owner's name, but our guy was making the payments – from his personal checking account."
"Still pretty dumb," Danny mumbled. He looked up and down the quiet street, "HPD sending any uniforms? This is the guy that blew up 3 of their officers."
Kono and Chin exchanged uncomfortable looks. Kono somehow came out the loser because she was the one who told Danny, "Five-0 pulled all available HDP for some drug raid." She grinned slyly, "I think they're trying to make up for the flaming meth lab."
Danny wondered if this was what happened to HPD detectives when they had been Five-0. He quickly dismissed that thought. McGarrett had never called the entire department in as back-up.
"Let's do this," Danny decided, "Kono watch the backdoor in case anyone decides to run. Chin, we'll go in the front."
It wasn't until Danny did a visual check of his teammates' readiness and saw the HPD badges that he realized his mistake, "Damn it! I'm sorry Chin. You're in charge here. How do you want us to do this?"
Chin waved the apology off, "No problem, Brah. It's been a rough couple of days. The plan sounds good – let's go."
Kono loped off around the corner of the house, ducking low to avoid windows. The guys waited a few minutes for her to get into position before they approached the front door.
Chin pounded on the front door, "Police Officers! Open up!"
The house was supposedly empty so it was hardly surprising when no one answered. Danny tried the knob and found it locked. They exchanged a quick look and few hand gestures. Chin kicked the door in and the two men moved swiftly through the house, guns drawn.
The house was small, just a kitchen, bedroom, living room, and bathroom all sitting on a concrete slab. It was almost immediately apparent that no one was there. The staleness of the air told the two seasoned detectives that no one had been there recently.
Danny holstered his weapon and threw up his hands in frustration, "Look at this place! The guy had a couch, a TV, a table, and a bed. There's no computer, not even any mail to go through. At most we'll get bomb residue off the remote – if he forgot to wash his hands."
Chin had opened the backdoor to let Kono in. She glanced around and agreed with Danny's assessment. "Kinda makes sense," she reasoned, "Bombs go boom. You wouldn't want to store them under your bed."
Danny went to check under the bed anyway. He found plastic storage boxes with clothing in them but nothing else.
Kono followed him into the bedroom, "Are you going to go through all his pockets?"
Danny glared at her, "Where did Chin go?"
Kono shrugged nonchalantly, "I think he's checking the big garage at the back of the property." She flashed a smiled at Danny, "That is the kind of place I might store explosives."
Danny gave her his best disappointed father look as he rushed past her towards the backdoor, inwardly mourning the fact that it had no effect.
Chin was peering into the dark depths of the garage. Heavy curtains covered the structure's two windows, blocking out most of the bright afternoon sun. Chin gave his eyes a minute to adjust.
Once he could see, Chin's heart started to race. The garage was dominated by a large workbench that currently held several claymore's in various stages of disassembly. This was the evidence they needed to tie Hills's murder, Jameson's murder, and the attempts to murder Steve all to the same people.
From behind Chin, Danny let out a low whistle, "Now this is what I'm talking about."
Kono slipped past them and began carefully checking the windows for any traps before pulling open the curtains.
"We've got his laptop," Chin exclaimed almost gleefully, pointing to a second, smaller work space. After taking a few photos of the table, Chin carefully placed the computer, along with the flash drives that were next to it, in an evidence bag.
Kono was already on the phone with the bomb squad, while Danny thoughtfully poked at a few personal items.
"Hey, take a look at this," Danny pointed to a framed photo. It showed Taro with an older Japanese man. They were in a field somewhere, surrounded by small craters. "Is that Hiro Noshimuri's brother, Koji?"
Chin studied the photo, "I think you're right. It makes sense. They both used the same type of car bombs."
"Bomb squads on their way to collect the explosives, but they might take some time because of the raid," Kono announced, "As soon as they give the all clear, a crime scene unit can start going over the place."
"Kono, you stay here an make sure everything gets processed by the book," Chin instructed.
"And nothing gets missed," Danny added darkly.
"I'm on it," Kono assured them.
Chin hefted the bag with the computer, "I'm going to take this in and see what I can get from it." He looked at Danny thoughtfully, "Why don't you check out Crosby's little party. Don't get involved – just take a look."
"Because it's not a coincidence that Taro was on Wo Fat's payroll and then ended up dead in that warehouse?" Danny suggested.
"Do you think the meth dealers are a rival group?" Kono asked.
Danny shook his head, "I think it's more likely they all work for Wo Fat and what happened to Taro was some kind of punishment for failing to kill Steve."
"Maybe he wasn't even supposed to die," Chin added, "That might have been an accident when the fire broke out."
The sound of sirens signaled the arrival of the bomb squad. The three friends separated to complete their assignments.
H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50
Danny arrived at the marina where Five-0 was conducting their sting to find chaos. The blond detective flagged down Officer Ben Kurua, "What's going on?"
Kurua's eyes widened with shock, "You don't know?"
"Just got here," Danny worked hard to hold onto his patience.
"Crosby found the tunnel out of the warehouse that everyone escaped through. While they were following it, Five-0 found some kind of lead that told them that the big yacht over there belonged to the head of the cartel."
"Trap," it came out before Danny could censor himself.
Ben was nodding, "It was a trap. Five-0 went in first because Crosby's blaming HPD for the way things went down at the warehouse."
Danny knew that he HAD to stop comparing the new Five-0 their team, but Steve would never blame HPD for his own mistakes. He turned his attention back to Kurua's story.
". . . the floor was rigged. It gave way under them, they fell like 2 decks and the power cut out."
"My God!" Danny exclaimed, "Was anyone hurt?"
"Well when the power cut out and we lost contact with the Five-0, SWAT rushed in. There were a couple shots fired but that may have been us. It was really chaotic for a while. Once everything go sorted out, we realized Doug Kidman was gone. We-"
Danny cut him off, "What do you mean gone? Did he get tired and go home? Were any of the cartel on the boat?"
Kurua shrugged, "There's no evidence that there was anyone onboard but us. It's being treated as a kidnapping but we don't know how it happened."
Danny eyed the area critically. The only way off the boat without being seen was underwater. Someone had apparently thought of that because there were divers in the water.
Once you're in the water, then what? Danny wondered. There were cops everywhere. Maybe it was better to lie low.
"Have you checked the other boats?" he asked.
"We can't, they're private property and we don't have any reason to believe Kidman is on any of them," he gave Danny a strange look, like he should know that.
"No reason!" You have a missing police officer! You do whatever you have to! You find him!" Danny's shouting and hand waving would probably have attracted attention if even louder shouting from the other side of the marina had not drawn everyone away.
Danny edged towards the crowd, more mindful than he had been a few minutes earlier about drawing attention to himself. He sighed. There was no way he was going to be able to see over the mob of police officers.
Behind him, the coroner's van arrived.
"Hello, Detective Williams," Max greeted him as the small Asian man climbed out of the van. He went around to the backdoor and began gathering his gear.
"Hi, Max. What brings you here?" Danny suddenly had a very bad feeling.
Max only paused for a moment. It was, of course, highly unprofessional to gossip. On the other hand, Detective Williams and the rest of his team had always been nicer to him than the other police officers had.
"I believe that Detective Kidman's body was found on a boat at the other end of the marina. One of the divers noticed blood smeared on the far side of the vessel from the water." Max lowered his voice even more, making Danny lean in to hear him, "The call said that his throat had been cut. A very bloody way to die."
H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50**** H50****H50****H50
Steve and Catherine were seated on the couch peering intently at her laptop.
After Governor Page left, Steve had been dangerously quiet. Cat knew that he was furious over Page's insinuations that he was a victim in need of protection. While searching for something to distract him, she realized that she still hadn't really told Steve about her mysterious visitor in Greece.
"This is everything from the flash drive?" Steve asked, scrolling through the pages of transactions.
"Toast unencrypted everything," Catherine sighed in frustration, "I don't understand how this is supposed to help you."
"I don't either," Steve admitted.
Steve's cell phone rang at the same time that Danny and Rachel let themselves in the front door. They had large bags of Chinese takeout with them.
"Are Chin and Kono here yet?" Danny asked Catherine while Steve moved away to take the call.
"Not yet," she answered, "Danny, I have to report for duty tomorrow morning. I don't like the idea of leaving Steve alone."
"Don't worry. We'll all take part of the day."
"I don't need babysitters!" Steve snapped, rejoining them.
"Someone is actively trying to kill you," Danny snapped back, "We're not leaving you alone."
"I'll be at Five-0 HQ," Steve said, his expression absolutely angelic, "Where could I be safer?"
Everyone stared at him.
Not surprisingly, Danny recovered the power of speech first, "Excuse me? I thought you were recovering from you head injury. I didn't realize the brain damage was permanent."
Steve smirked, "I've been invited to come down."
"Is it part of the witness protection deal?" Catherine asked.
Now everyone was staring at her.
"Steve's going into witness protection?" Kono asked, betrayal evident in her expression.
"No," Steve smiled for another moment before becoming more serious, "The Governor was kind enough to stop by and offer to place me in WitSec. I declined. I have also been asked to come down to Five-0 tomorrow and pack up my personal possessions."
"I'll go with you," Danny decided.
"I'll follow-up on Taro's house, garage, and computer," Chin told them, "Kono, who don't you visit Max and Charlie, see what you can find out about Kidman's murder."
"I'm starving," Danny gestured towards the takeout bags, "Let's eat and I'll tell you about the marina. And Steve can tell us about his new friend, Governor Page."
Everyone was headed towards the kitchen for plates and drinks when Rachel cleared her throat to get their attention, "Am I allowed to ask what this is?" She pointed at the laptop.
Now it was her turn to be the center of attention.
"I just wondered because this seems like an extremely convoluted way to raise and transfer investment money."
"You understand this?" Steve asked.
"Well not the particulars but I understand the theory behind it."
Steve glanced at Danny to gauge his partner's reaction. He was surprised to find Danny almost joyful.
"Rachel, darling," Danny was beaming, "Right after dinner, I have some spreadsheets for you to look over."
Sneak Peak: Steve, Danny, Governor Page, and Darren Crosby on the floor in Steve's (or Crosby's) office while shots are fired.