Hey Everybody! Another Chapter done and dusted! Thanks for all the adds, alerts etc. You guys are amazing! Please enjoy the next chapter! There might even be another one added today! Crossing my fingers! Cheers

Disclaimer: I don't own!

Chapter 5

Kono ran towards the bushes infront of her, hoping that the tree she had been hiding behind would still offer her some cover. She reached the bushes. As she entered the thick jungle she felt a stinging sensation in her right thigh. She had been grazed by a bullet. She wanted to sit down and hold her leg in agony, but she knew it would be the end of her. She carried on moving forward, hopping as fast as she could. She was being scratched by bushes and her clothes were getting caught on them as she scurried through them. She heard the men behind her, Steve was right, they were struggling to get to her. She found a boulder and hid behind it to avoid being hit by another bullet.

Steve heard the gunfire and picked up the pace towards the direction it was coming from. He stalked upon the men when he got closer. He asked no questions and didn't bother to announce himself. He shot the three men that were still in the clearing. He headed towards the area that they had been aiming at. He decided to go around the opening they had made into the thick bush. He stalked from the left hand side, careful to not give away his position.

Kono was in agony. She knew that she needed to get up and run, but she just couldn't fight the urge to rest anymore. Her wound on her arm was bleeding and her leg as well. She was starting to feel weak. Her heart was racing from all the adrenaline going through her body. She heard a footstep next to her and picked up a rock, the only defence she had. She was about to launch the rock in the direction of the assailant when she noticed the colour of his shirt was different to the others. It was blue. Blue like Steve was wearing this morning.

"Steve?" She whispered, still unsure. He turned in her direction and lifted his head in relief. He crouched at her side and held his hand to her face.

"See, I knew you didn't really need us." He put his forehead to hers, closed his eyes and said a thank you prayer to whoever was listening.

"Rachel, Grace?"

"They are ok. You did good."

She smiled, but soon it turned into a reaction to pain. She was beginning to feel light headed. "Kono. Stay here. I'm going to end this, then I'll come back and we'll go visit Chin, Okay?" She nodded, too scared to speak in fear that her words would come out shaky.

Steve knew that she was in terrible pain. She would never normally stay seated if she could help it. She was bleeding, a lot. He needed to get her out of these woods, but first he would have to take care of the last two man hunters. He slowly stalked the bushes, finding one of the men tangled in a large bush. He was struggling to break free from its branches. Steve creeped up behind the man and shoved his gun into his back.

"You messed with the wrong team buddy." His voice was cold. He took out rope that he had in the backpack and tied the man up to a sturdy tree. He heard a twig snap behind him. Turning quickly he saw a man standing directly behind him, gun pointed in his direction. He was too far away from the man to attempt any assault. The perp lifted his weapon to fire, but fell to the ground as a rock struck him on the back of the head. Kono. She had stepped behind the man and rendered him unconscious. She smiled, then her legs buckled and she fell to a kneeling position. Steve ran to her side and made her sit down. He quickly tied the man up along with his partner and proceeded to take care of Kono. He was concentrating hard on making sure that she was well taken care of. He slowly wrapped a bandage around her leg to stop any excess bleeding. She looked tired. He felt so proud of her in that moment. She had risked her own life to save the lives of her partners' family. He smiled to himself thinking of her bravery.

"What you smiling about?" She was beginning to relax again now that all the men had been taken care of.

"You." His grin got wider.

"How so?" She was eager to know his thoughts on her.

"You're like…like Superwoman." She laughed at his response.

"Really? Superwoman? How do you come to that conclusion?"

"Well, you flew through the jungle." She giggled again. "You saved the family in distress and you rescued Superman." She was laughing by the end of his sentence.

"Ok. I won't argue. Only because superwoman needs a doctor."

He lifted her chin with one finger and held a waterbottle to her lips as he guided her to drink from it. She closed her eyes. Steve stared on as she was obviously refreshed by the cool liquid running down her throat. He slowly took the water bottle away and she sighed as she felt better. She opened her eyes to find his staring back at her. He slowly leaned into her and kissed her gently on the lips. Her eyes closed again, she seemed to be getting just as much relief from his kiss as she had from the water. The kiss was slow and short, giving just enough to make her long for more. There it was again, that smile that would bring any woman crumbling to her knees. He wasted no time and lifted her to her feet, not sure whether he had done the right thing. He lifted her good arm and wrapped it around his neck and lifted her off of her feet to carry her out of the thick bushes.

It took them a while, but they eventually made it to the house. As Steve walked through the bushes surrounding the house and made his way into the front area of the yard he saw blue flashing lights and was relieved that HPD had arrived to assist with the men in the jungle. He carried Kono for as long as he could, but his arms had grown tired and she could feel it. "You can put me down now superman." She had given him the same command a few times on the journey back to the house, but he had refused, instead resting every now and then. He obeyed her command this time and gently placed her feet on the ground, still holding onto her waist, her arm rested on his shoulder for support. They saw Danny, Rachel and Grace near one of the squad cars. Grace noticed them first. She ran in Kono's direction, wrapping her arms around her legs before Steve could stop her. Kono groaned at the painful sensation that occurred as Grace collided with her leg. Steve wanted to hold Grace back, but Kono shook her head at him to stop him from doing so. He admired the woman standing beside him.

"Kono. You're okay!" Grace was excited.

"Yeah Gracie, I'm good." She smiled down at her.

Danny was walking towards them. He said nothing, but Kono and Steve could see the emotion on his face. He gently wrapped his arms around her as Grace had let go and held Kono for a few moments. He whispered in her ear.

"Thank you Kono. I owe you my life."

She almost started crying at his words, but fought back the tears that were forming in her eyes. "No you don't, but I'm not going to turn down some pizza." She was not one for emotion and avoided it, especially when around the guys.

"For a year!" He smiled at her.

Rachel embraced her next. "Thank you Kono. Thank you for risking your life for us."

"I'm just so glad you guys aren't hurt."

Steve stepped in when he saw the shimmering in Kono's eyes. "Ok, the lady needs to see the medic." He ushered her towards the ambulance parked in the driveway.

The paramedic addressed her wounds while Steve and Danny questioned men they had cuffed to the vehicles earlier. They weren't being co-operative. They were obviously scared or extremely loyal to the person who hired them. They were getting nowhere and the irritation was beginning to show.

They gathered their belongings from the house and headed back to the palace under escort of HPD. Kono had once again gone with Steve, while Danny, Rachel and Grace were in the camaro behind them. Kono's wounds had been re-stitched and re-dressed by the paramedic. She had put on a pair of shorts to allow the man to work on her leg. She felt awkward on the drive back to the palace, remembering the kiss that Steve had given her in the jungle. Was it the adrenaline rush? She hoped not. She laid her head back onto the headrest and breathed in deeply to attempt at getting rid of the stress that she found was knotting in her shoulders. Her movements were not unnoticed by the Navy SEAL. "You feeling okay?"

"I'm good. You can stop asking now." She smirked.

"Hey, don't shoot a guy down for caring."

Her head slowly lifted from its resting position and she stared intently at the man driving the van. He was obviously worried. Not being able to pin point the man responsible for all the attacks on his team was noticeably taking effect on him. She could see that he felt responsible. She knew how his mind was working, hers would do the same.

"We're going to get him soon."

He looked surprised at her words. "It hasn't been good enough Kono. I should have seen this coming. They're monsters, obviously they would do anything to destroy the case against them."

'Steve, lets pretend I'm you for a second." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Hear me out. This is where you normally take the lead, find a clue, take the bad guy down and get the…" She stopped the words before they came out.

He looked at her curiously, "..girl I believe you were going to say."

She tried to downplay the words. "Well, in this case there is no girl, so you will have to settle for the warm and fuzzy feeling of being able to save the world."

He decided to take her on. "That's a shame coz I think the girl was kind of hot in this story." He stared ahead of him, yet still noticed the blush that swept across her face. She felt the tension rising in the van and decided to end it before she said something she would regret later. "Anyway, what I was trying to say is that we're going to get him and we will do it soon."

"Yeah ok." He knew the flirtatious moment had gone, but still relished in his victory over her in the conversation.

Xxxxxxxx

They gathered at the palace. It was now early in the evening and the sun had began to set. They were all exhausted from the long day. They all took turns to have showers and had decided to stay in the palace that night. It seemed the safest place to be. Steve gave up his couch and moved it into Danny's office for Rachel and Grace to sleep on. While Rachel and Grace got cleaned up the three team members gathered around their evidence table to work on the case.

"There must be something we missed." Steve was anxious to end the rat race that they had been stuck in.

"What about money trails. There must be something linking all of these men to Marcelo's son." Kono was searching through a document.

"Aaargh." Steve and Kono both looked up at Danny. "I'm so tired of being shot at and my family being at risk." He lifted his hands onto his head in frustration. "I'm sorry guys, I'm just so aaarghh…" he let out another moan of frustration.

"Danny, we will find a way to get him. I promise." Kono stared at her boss as he made the commitment to Danny. She hoped that he was right and that this could all be resolved soon. She was tired of running, of trying to figure out where to go, who to hide and who would be next. A sickening thought ran through her mind. Chin. Why hadn't she thought of it sooner. She scratched through one of the men's financials that she had been looking at. She stood as she pointed to some figures on the report.

"Six deposits from an off shore bank account into this man's account. Six deposits for six people." Her two partners seemed to be calculating in their heads. She didn't have time for them to do the sums. "The five of us… and Chin."

She stood up and ran for the glass doors. Steve grabbed the camaro keys started to run with her.

"Danny, you stay here with Rachel and Grace. We'll go to Chin." He ran down the stairs following Kono who was running as fast as she could with her hurt leg.

Xxx

Kono ran in through the emergency doors alongside Steve. Soon he was ahead of her and ran to the nurses' desk asking where Chin's room was. She pointed him in the direction. "There's a doctor with him now though." Kono's heart sank.

Steve made it to the room just as the impostor was about to inject a Chin's IV with something. He wasted no time and pulled the man away from his friends bedside. A tussle broke out and Steve found himself slammed against the window in the small room. He wrestled the man, punching him at least twice, but the man was strong and managed to push Steve over the visitors chair in the room and made a break for the door. Out of nowhere a steel tray appeared and the man basically ran into it, knocking him to the floor. Kono appeared in the doorway and cuffed the man's hands behind his back. She was too angry to say a word. Steve got up off the ground and helped her with the perp and handed him over to two security guards that had run into the room after Kono. Kono stood watching Chin, he seemed so peaceful, blissfully unaware of what had just happened in his room. She walked to the side of his bed and kissed his forehead and whispered something that Steve could not hear. She held his hand for a moment longer, then turned and left the room, walking straight past Steve. He stood there for a moment and turned his body as she walked past him, very confused as to where she was going. He started to walk after her.

"Kono? Wait, where are you going?" He picked up the pace to catch up with her. She was walking unbelievably fast for somebody with a sore leg. She didn't stop and made it all the way out the front doors of the hospital before Steve caught up with her and grabbed her arm, pulling her to face him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm tired of this Steve. Tired of being victim to somebody else. This has got to end now." She was angry and rightly so, but Steve was unclear of what she meant when she spoke to him.

"Where are you going to go?" He seemed desperate to keep her close to him. "Just come back to the Palace with me and we'll find a way Kono."

"No." He answer was abrupt. " I'll meet you at the Palace in a bit, but I need to find my own way of dealing with this and don't try stop me Steve." Her warning was firm and she started to walk away from him and flagged down the nearest Taxi she could find. Her hair waving down her back as she walked with determination. Her small frame disappeared into the Taxi and it drove off. He knew she was going to do something stupid, but just didn't know how to stop her. He ran back inside the hospital and organised a security detail for Chin, then quickly ran back to the camaro and drove to the palace. A million thoughts plagued his mind. Where was she going? Would she be safe? What was she doing to do?