sooo... hi?

*hides under oversized history textbooks*

sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry! So this entire author's note is basically just going to be me apologizing profusely and explaining why I haven't updated in over a month.

This last month or so has been unbelievably stressful, as I got hit full force with a shit-load of homework, long-term projects, and shit I had to memorize. And then I had finals, and I had to study harder than I've ever studied before in my life to get my history grade up 3% to an A. I've been under so much pressure and honestly have had no time to write. Don't feel too sorry for me though, because like honestly, first-world problems is like flashing in neon lights above my head right now.

ANYWAY, i'm back, as i'm finally on summer vacation, and I think you all can look forward to pretty regular updates from here on out :) So, without further ado, I give you a particularly whumpy chapter to make up for my absence :) YAY FOR WHUMP!

Last time: Steve was doing really shitty, so they gave him just enough medical treatment to keep him alive so that they could torture him some more. Danny, Catherine, Kono, and Chin have gotten no closer to finding Steve.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Steve was startled into consciousness by what seemed to be a dozen men pouring into his cell. He didn't feel nearly as terrible as he had been the past few days, but that really wasn't saying much.

Steve felt himself flipped over onto his back by two men. Despite being outnumber at least 10 to one, Steve refused to go down easy. Swiping out one of his legs, he cut the legs out from underneath one of the men who had a hold of him.

In an instant, four more men were on him, and Steve felt someone's boot pin his head to the ground. He struggled fruitlessly as his hands were tied behind his back. There was shouting in Japanese that Steve was too distracted and too tired to translate into English.

A few seconds later, a giant tub filled with water was being dragged into the room.

He didn't say anything, and even though he wasn't particularly encouraged by the appearance of the tub of water, he was not too discouraged by it. He was a SEAL. Resistance to waterboarding and holding his breathe had been drilled extensively into his mind from his rigorous SEAL training. Already, Steve was preparing himself for what he knew what was about to happen.

Deep breaths. Slow down heart rate. Clear mind.

"それを移動,"one of the goons snapped. "Wo Fat is getting impatient, 浮きかす."

Steve felt himself being dragged forward to the tub.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Last chance to fess up, McGarrett," The goon said menacingly.

Steve smirked at him. "あなたが得た私にすべてを与える, asshole."

With that, Steve felt himself dunked into the less-than-room-temperature water. He didn't struggle; that would only drain his energy faster.

Steve immediately began to count. He knew his own limit, he just hoped that these nimrods wouldn't risk going that far.

He nearly laughed after they brought him up after only one minute. Completely unfazed, Steve winked mockingly at the idiot supervising, all whilst inconspicuously sucking in copious amounts of oxygen, prepping himself for the next round.

It was a good thing he did, because a moment later he was slammed back into the water. They took a much more aggressive approach this time, jerking his head around, creating waves and underwater currents that slammed into his face.

Stay calm, Steve repeated his mantra to himself.

When, two minutes later, they brought him back up again, Steve only took a moment to take in a few gasps of air before he grinned. "That all you got?"

And down again. Three minutes came and went, and as four minutes grew nearer and nearer, Steve started to feel the strain in his lungs that so desperately craved air. Just as Steve was about to start worrying about his limit, which was quickly approaching, he felt himself wrenched back out of the water.

The second that Steve reflexively opened his lungs to gulp in air, he was shoved back down again into the water, and suddenly he was choking, breathing in water instead of air. And no one, not even a SEAL, could prevent what followed.

As the first of the water entered Steve's lungs, he instinctively began to choke. As he spluttered and coughed, more water gushed into his lungs. Soon his whole body was heaving, but his head securely pressed underwater.

Steve could not stop the darkness that began to cloud his vision, and his body grew limp as he passed out.

.

.

.

Steve returned to consciousness seconds later, coughing up unholy amounts of water, desperately trying to gasp in air. Alternating between coughing, gasping, and choking, Steve was hunched over on his side on the cold, hard ground.

When at last Steve had expelled the last of the water from his lungs, he felt his head lifted from the ground by one of the goons' grip on his hair.

"Where is she?" The sickly warm breath of the goon was right against his ear.

Steve twisted his head to meet the thug's glare and spat at his feet in response.

The goon motioned to his companions, and Steve found himself submerged in water once again.

Danny counted 19 days since Steve had disappeared. And finally, at long last, progress.

Catherine had come in that morning with the usual news – nobody, anywhere, had seen or heard anything about Steve McGarrett. But during lunch she had gotten the call that had changed everything.

Various transactions from bank accounts all around the globe had been made to the Yakuza. Bank accounts that, upon closer investigation, appeared to be linked to Wo Fat.

Catherine's victorious shout upon getting off the phone with her contact had drawn the attention of the entire 5-0 team.

The wide grin spread across her face as she turned to face them had been almost unsettling, as such smiles had been nonexistent in 5-0's headquarters in the 19 days that Steve had been missing.

"I think we got something," was what Catherine said in response to the three faces staring intently at her with questioning eyes.

Steve lay on his back in his cell, in solitude once again. He breathed in shallow, raspy breaths, staring at the ceiling, savoring the oxygen in his lungs. Occasionally his blank composure would be broken as his body was once again racked by savage coughs, expelling any left over water that had been lingering in Steve's lungs.

Steve's head pounded with pressure unlike anything he had experienced before. As if the headache excruciating migraine wasn't crippling enough, the fever that had been festering in Steve's body for over two weeks now, which he had managed to fight back and keep at bay up until this point, had finally broken through.

The heat ravaged his body, which, when combined with the agony in Steve's head, had brought complete disorientation upon Steve. He was drenched in sweat, and everything around him was a blur. Time had begun to have no meaning as Steve's world became nothing but prolonged, agonizing aches, nausea, and dizziness.

Frankly, it was a miracle that the fever had taken so long to take hold of him. He had been shot over two weeks ago, and not long after that he had been stabbed and cut repeatedly. So, in perspective, it was indeed a miracle that it had taken this long for the infection to set in.

But if there was one thing Steve knew for sure, it was that he was in more trouble now than he had ever been before in the past 16+ days. Never before had Steve acknowledged his dire need to get out of the hellhole as much as he did now. Now that the fever had set in, Steve knew that he had a matter of days before he succumbed to the infection.

Catherine's fingers flew across her keyboard at the speed of light as she pulled up the intel she had just received from her contact. "The total sum of the transactions came out to about half a million US dollars," she explained to Danny, Chin, and Kono, not taking her eyes of her work.

"Do we have any way of finding out what that money went towards?" Kono asked.

Chin sighed. "I doubt it. That would require knowledge of the Yakuza's activity all over the globe, as we have no idea which Yakuza cell across the world that money went to. And even if we did know where exactly the money went, it would still be highly improbable that we would ever be able to trace…" Chin trailed off at the sight of Catherine's almost cocky smirk. Chin's lips twitched upwards slightly as he looked at her. "Let me guess: there's a little more to the story than that."

"Just a bit," Catherine grinned. "What you were saying would have been true, except for the fact that the Yakuza has been under a lot of heat lately and they've been laying low. They tried to cover their tracks, but unfortunately for them, it's not a difficult task to figure out where half a million dollar transaction is going when all other Yakuza bank activity has been dormant for the past few months."

"We were able to follow the money." Kono smiled knowingly. It wasn't a question.

"The money's ultimate destination was to a Yakuza stronghold on the Big Island (A/N: Hawaii's biggest island, formally known as Hawaii)."

"So, if we can figure out what Wo Fat needed from the Yakuza so badly that he would pay them half a million dollars, we can trace that back to Steve?" Danny spoke up for the first time in the entire exchange.

Catherine met Danny's eyes, suddenly mirroring the determined look that had taken hold there.

"Exactly."

So, now I would like to openly admit to how much of this chapter is total BS. Like, gaping plot and factual holes the size of Tartarus. But, as I've stated before, I don't really give a crap about all that stuff, as the sole purpose of this story is to whump Steve. But yeah. Like all that stuff with the bank accounts and stuff probably makes no sense and I just BSed all of it so we could move the plot along. This is me shamelessly admitting to the complete nonexistence of factual correctness in my story. So if none of that bank transaction stuff made any since to you, just go along with the fact that they actually have a lead in tracking Steve down. I also admit that I used Google Translate for the Japanese, and as I wrote the very start of this chapter like a month ago, and the rest this morning, I have absolutely no recollection of what it translates to. lol. sorry bout that.

..forgive me for my flagrant disregard for quality story telling?

Anyway, if you haven't been too offended by my brutally honest author's note, pleeeeaaaase review!