CHAPTER FOUR

Upon waking up, Steve could not remember ever feeling pain quite like this. Sure, he had been in some pretty crap situations before, but by this point he had usually been in a hospital, pumped full of morphine and in a different world.

This pain was so… real. Like nothing he'd ever experienced. He felt so raw, so exposed, so… done for. There were so many sources of the indescribable pain Steve felt.

With every beat of his heart, Steve's shoulder where he had been shot felt like it was being run through with a red hot iron. Repetitively, again and again; the pulsing, burning, ripping pain pulsing through his throbbing shoulder.

Steve's stabbed shoulder felt like the flesh had been sliced by a butcher knife and grinded by a blender. The worst pain, however, was not on the surface. The bone of his shoulder blade raged with a fierce, unignorable ache, and his shoulder muscles literally felt shredded.

A dizziness washed over Steve suddenly and his vision began to obscure, but Steve fought the urge to pass out with everything he had. Covered head to toe in a cold sweat, Steve took deep (painful) breaths to ease his lightheadedness.

With as little movement as possible, as to not further worsen the wounds he had sustain, Steve inched himself backwards so that he could prop his head up against the wall.

Never before in his life had he felt so… spent. He could almost still feel the electric current passing through him, like a wave of burning water under his skin, attacking his entire body.

The pain in his head topped everything off. It was so intense, so overpowering, that it hurt to exist. His head made everything worse…. It hurt to move, hurt to breathe, it even hurt to think.

The nausea and dizziness washed over him again, and this time Steve didn't fight it, allowing unconsciousness to reel him into a world where he wouldn't have to feel.

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Steve has been missing for eight days. Eight days without a single word… no clue, no tip – nothing had turned up that had brought them closer to finding Steve.

Danny was exhausted. He hadn't gotten more than 10 hours of sleep since Steve disappeared, but no matter how hard Danny tried to relax and get some rest, he couldn't stop trying to come up with another way to find Steve.

Traffic cams in the area had revealed nothing. The shell casing had yielded no results. Security cams in the area had been wiped. The drug-trafficking case seemed to be slipping between their fingers, and it was clear that it had only been a front for the true intentions of who ever had done this… to get Steve.

Or something like that. Danny had no idea, because he had been unable to turn up a damn thing in this case, and he couldn't deny that he had absolutely no idea what had happened.

He didn't have a clue where his partner was.

Danny cursed, kicking the trash can out of frustration, sending it flying across the room. The smash that followed was not nearly as satisfying as Danny imagined it. Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair. He was glad Chin and Kono hadn't been there to see his outburst.

Danny sank into the chair at his desk, stress practically radiating off of him. He turned on his computer and pulled up the file they had on Wo Fat.

Wherever Steve was, Danny knew that Wo Fat had something to do with it, and he was determined to find him.

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Steve felt something pulling him back to the land of the living. He knew that whatever it was, it wouldn't be good, and he fought to stay asleep with everything he had.

Suddenly he was drenched to the bone, ice cold water soaking him and his clothes.

Steve gasped, his eyes flying open as he spluttered up water, rolling over onto his side as he coughed.

He felt himself roughly yanked to his feet, spluttering and shivering. He was plunged into darkness as a hood was pulled over his head and he felt a gun jabbing into his back, ushering him forwards.

This was the first time they had moved him while he was conscious, and despite how utterly burned out he was and how much pain he was in, Steve's instinctive skills as a SEAL could not be suppressed as he stumbled forward.

Ten paces forward. Turn right. 25 paces forward. Turn right.

Steve knew they had reached the final destination before he had been halted. He could sense the atmosphere of the room he had just entered… the musty humidity was unmistakable.

The hood was yanked off of his head, and even in the dim light, Steve was temporarily blinded. In those few seconds of vulnerability, Steve felt himself being forced into a chair. Despite the pain, Steve could not let himself be subdued without a fight.

Summoning strength Steve hadn't even thought he had anymore, he twisted the arms of the men who had a hold of him, slipping out of their grip. Steve made a beeline towards the door, but he had not made it more than a few strides before he felt himself slammed into the wall.

Grunting from the pain in his ribs, Steve fell to the floor. Resigned, Steve acknowledged to himself that he hadn't stood a chance at escaping as he was pulled none-to-gently to his feet once again, this time being forced into the chair without a fight.

He could not count how many men there were… their faces we all a blur… everything in his vision was disjointed. Exhausted, Steve let his head loll back as his wrists were forced into leather straps on hard wooden armrests, his ankles strapped to the chair legs, and his midriff secured by a tight strap to the back of the chair, cutting into his brutally beaten abdomen.

Sound was fuzzy and his vision tunneling as he felt himself slipping again. Steve though he heard somebody shouting in front of his face, but he was too far to come back now…

A whip-like slap to his face brought Steve abruptly back to consciousness. Wo Fat's face swam in front of him.

"You are weak Commander McGarret," Wo Fat said smugly, "You won't last much longer. It is just a matter of time before you tell us where your mother is hiding."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. And as much as Steve wanted to tell him to shove it where the sun don't shine, he simply could not afford to waste his strength.

Wo Fat did not overlook Steve's silence. He laughed softly. "No witty retort, Commander? My, it seems you're breaking much easier than we originally thought…"

Steve simply raised his head to meet Wo Fat's stare with a look of the utmost loathing. Wo Fat just smiled.

Wo Fat turned around and began to rummage through things that Steve could not see. Steve felt his stomach sink as Wo Fat turned around, syringe in hand. Whatever was next was not going to be good.

"Do you know what this is, Commander McGarrett?"

"Surprise me," Steve replied sardonically, his retort not coming out as well as planned, more of a hoarse croak than anything else.

"This is venom extracted from a Texas Coral Snake, and it's been shipped all the way to Hawaii just for you."

"Still in Hawaii, then, are we?"

Wo Fat did not seem perturbed by Steve's picking up on his slip-up. He just smiled elusively, saying, "in a manner of speaking."

Steve glared at Wo Fat, the arrogant little bastard.

"You're changing the subject though, Commander. I was just telling you about the Texas Coral Snake. I could have gotten venom from any other type of coral snake a lot easier, but they say that the… degree of pain caused by the venom of a Texas coral snake is just on a completely different level that from that of other breeds. I had to go through quite a hassle to get this, McGarrett, but you know what? You're worth it."

Wo Fat advanced on Steve, the syringe balanced lightly between his fingertips. Steve was completely helpless as Wo Fat gripped his arm tightly with one hand, syringe in the other, as he felt for a vein.

Wo Fat smiled and straightened up as he found what he was looking for.

"The pain," he told Steve, positioning the needle, "is said to be… excruciating. Your nerves will literally feel like they are being dipped in acid."

Steve exhaled sharply as Wo Fat plunged the syringe into his arm, his heart pounding rapidly with the apprehension of what was to come.

"Take him back to his cell," Wo Fat called to the guards. "I don't want to listen to the screaming while I eat dinner."

A/N: gasp! what lies in store for poor Steve? spoiler alert: WHUUUUMP! Personally, I think that the use of chemicals and toxins is a completely underutilized form of torture in the whole Whump!Steve category. next chapter is gonna be pretty legit ;) mwahaha. Next episode is going to have Wo Fat, though, so that ought to be interesting! (does anybody understand what's going on with Doris's box thing? am i correct in that it puts Steve in danger? *grins sadistically*) I would have liked to have gotten this up sooner, but I have been absolutely SWAMPED by homework this week and have had absolutely no time to write. *tears* Also right now I think Steve and Danny's storylines are at about the same point in time right now, about 8 days.

aaanyway don't forget to review! Reviews might just inspire me to get the next chapter posted sooner, if you get my drift ;)