Wow! So just finished this chapter, didn't realise how long it was! Hope it keeps your attention! Again, I'm no computer tech so not sure if some of the stuff below makes sense, if not, please pretend! Enjoy! Loving the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own them!

Chapter 6

Steve walked into the palace doors and Danny was up in a flash at the sight of him. He looked confused to see the man alone. "What happened? Where's Kono?"

Steve shook his head and ran his fingers through his own hair. " I don't know. She ran off saying that she would end this in her own way." He was beginning to get angry with her. She wasn't supposed to leave them to start her own little mission. The more he thought about it the more he was getting infuriated.

"Well, what did she say?" Danny was concerned

"She said exactly that Danny. She was going to meet us here later."

"Well why did you let her go? Why didn't you go with her?" Interrogating Steve at the moment hadn't seemed like a good idea, but he wanted answers.

"I…I don't know Danny. I suppose I didn't believe she would actually separate from us!"

"Steve, you know she's a mini you! She'll do anything and everything to keep everybody safe, including dumb things." He threw his hands up and walked towards the main table in the room. He placed his hands on the sides of the table and seemed to be breathing in and out heavily to calm himself down. "So we've just got to wait for her now?"

"Yeah I suppose." Steve perched himself in front of the window overlooking the parking lot, staring down at it as if she would appear any second. He felt guilty for not stopping her or at least following her.

Xxxxx

The gigantic house that lay before her was in darkness, all but one room. She sneaked around the side of the house. Jeez, you'd think these people would have better security. She was thinking to herself as she silently approached the rear of the house, looking for any opening that could get her inside. She was dressed in black tights and a black sweatshirt and had a black mask to hide her face. She found a window that was slightly open. She slowly lifted the window until the gap was big enough for her to fit through. She hopped onto the window sill and bit her lip as her shot up leg hit the wooden frame. She pushed through the pain and made haste in closing the window again just in case a nosey guard was lurking around the house. She had entered into a bathroom. She slowly opened the door, careful to not make a sound. She headed down a long corridor. Her breathing was controlled and her eyes were darting everywhere, looking for residents of the house. She heard two men talking and slowly entered one of the rooms in the corridor, closing the door behind her, but still listening intently until the voices had disappeared around the corner. She knew where she wanted to go. Marcelo's office. She had seen it when they had arrested him earlier in the week. She was convinced that there was some evidence of his son's workings since he had been incarcerated. She slowly cracked the door open again and listened for noise before heading down the corridor again. She came up to the door she wanted to enter. She put her one hand on the door knob and the other on the door, slowly turning the knob and pushing the door open. She slid inside the room and closed the door behind herself. She pulled out her flashlight and started searching for evidence. She thought she had searched just about everywhere. The desk had nothing useful in it, the bookcases were also a dud. The light of the flashlight searched the room and a peculiar sight caught her attention. She noticed that one of the cushions on the chair seemed to be raised a little, almost as though somebody had lifted it off the chair. She went closer to investigate, finding a secret compartment in the base of the chair. She lifted it up and found a thick file, full of information on the slave trade they had been running. She took out her phone and took pictures of it, every now and then lifting her head to listen for unwelcome visitors. She paged through the file slowly and came upon a sight that made her heart beat rapidly. In the file were pictures of the Five-0 team. Each team member at their house, at work and even on the beach. They had been watching them for some time it seemed. She could date one picture as far back as a month. She hadn't realised that they had known that her team was onto them then. The sound of footsteps interrupted her. She quickly took some pictures of the file and then put it back in its compartment and set the chair into its correct position again. She quickly ran behind the door of the room and patiently waited for the footsteps to disappear. They did not. The door knob started to turn and Kono pulled out her weapon. Her breathing started to get a little heavier. The guard walked into the dark room and held the doorknob while he gave a quick glance around the room. He hadn't seen her and closed the door behind himself. Kono let out a sigh of relief. She had felt up to fighting off a bunch of goons tonight. She leaned in to open the door, but fumbled in the dark and knocked over a pile of books that had been on a coffee table in the room. She scrunched her face up at the realisation that she had probably just alerted the whole house to her presence. She quickly ran towards the window and opened it, climbing out in time to see two guards walk through the study door. She hopped to the ground causing herself more agony to her leg and quickly slipped into dark corners to be able to get off of the property. She made it to the boundary wall and climbed a tree next to it to jump over. She ran across the street and into an alleyway and quickly tore off the black sweater and mask. Her face was sweaty, hair sticking to her head. She re-entered the road, now wearing a small red dress that hugged her body tightly, barely covering the bandage on her thigh. She had put it on underneath the black clothing just in case she found herself in a situation such as this. The road was busy and Kono was thankful for that. She waved down a taxi and began to climb in. She paused before sitting and stared over the hood of the vehicle at the men walking up and down the street looking for their burglar. A small smirk found its way to her lips.

Steve and Danny had been going crazy for the past two hours. Phoning her had been useless and they had looked for her at her house, favourite surf spot and even at Chin's house, but couldn't find her anywhere. They had decided that it would be better to wait for her at the Palace. They both started pacing the room until one of them broke the silence.

"I should have stopped her." Steve was beyond his anger and was now worried sick.

"Yeah, you should've." Danny seemed cold at first. "Fat lot of good that would have done you. She would have found a way to do her own thing anyway." He seemed to be consoling his partner, but wouldn't dare say it out right.

Steve gave a half nod in appreciation, walked towards the window and stared down at the parking lot. "We can't loose her Danny. Not now, not after everything we've been through."

Danny knew that he wasn't referring to the team, but rather himself and Kono. They had obviously gotten to a more intimate part of their relationship. He realised that her running away must have torn him apart on so many levels. He walked up to his friend and put his hand on his shoulder. " She'll be back soon and then we can let her have it…" he turned to the entrance of the office and saw his rookie all dressed in red standing there as if waiting for an invite to interrupt their conversation. "… let me start."

He walked up to Kono. She bowed her head, waiting for the shouting to start. Instead Danny grabbed her in his arms and hugged her. "You dumbass". Her face was pressed against his shirt and she smiled. The smile quickly faded when she looked over Danny's shoulder and saw the way that Steve was looking at her. The look was as if he had been betrayed, his eyes staring directly into hers, but not with the affection she was used to. This seemed as if he was fuming mad. Her body stiffened and Danny could feel the tension building up in her shoulders and slowly let her out of his grasp. "You had us worried. I'm glad you're ok, but he has every right to be angry at you right now." She looked up at Danny with big brown eyes.

"Where did you go?" Steve's voice was strict. He stood facing her, arms crossed in front of his chest.

She rolled her eyes and looked away as she replied "Marcelo's house."

"What! Are you insane? You could have gotten killed!" His anger was now bubbling over.

"I didn't. I'm fine. I had…"

"Kono, you put your life in danger and never even bothered to let us know where we could find you. Not to mention if you had gotten caught we all would've been in big trouble because you had to go play the hero. If he knows you were there then the whole case could get thrown out." Danny seemed to think Steve was over reacting a little, but decided to stay out of argument for now.

She bit her lip. She could feel herself getting angry at his reaction. "I'm fine. They didn't catch me and I wore a mask so they wouldn't know who I was anyway. Happy now, Boss." She knew she was out of line, but couldn't help her snappy tone. "By the way, I did happen to get us some evidence while I was there." She limped towards him and shoved her phone into his chest. He grabbed the phone, but never took his eyes off Kono. "Take a look. I'm going to put on some other clothes." She walked away from him and into her changing room. Steve closed his eyes and breathed out as she left, either to calm himself down or in disbelief of what had just happened, Danny couldn't tell. "That was pretty harsh Steve."

"What do you mean harsh Danny She…?" He let out a moan of intense frustration.

"You and I both know that you didn't care a damn about the case when you didn't know where she was. She is trying to do something to protect her family. Any one of us would have done the same. You included. In fact, you especially."

He stared at Danny for a moment, then looked down and rubbed his face. "I know. I just.."

"I know Steve. She doesn't. Now give me that thing and you go talk to her. Nicely." Danny lifted his eyebrow in warning to Steve and took the cellphone from his hands.

Steve knocked on the change room door. There was no answer. He slowly pushed the door open to find Kono staring at the pictures she had stuck up in her locker. She had changed into a shirt and cargo pants. She didn't stir when Steve entered the room, the door closing behind him.

"Kono…"

"I know.. the rookie blew it."

"No, no you didn't. I did. I'm sorry. I was just…" He walked towards her and leaned against the locker next to hers, "..I was just worried, okay." That is when he noticed that she had streaks on her face, as if she had shed a single tear from each eye. He pulled her to face him. Her eyes were sparkling. "I just thought that something could have happened to you and I freaked out …a bit."

She swallowed hard at his words and spoke softly to him. "I just couldn't sit back and stare at those stupid files of ours and get nowhere. I just got angry that there was nothing I could do to help Chin. I needed to find something to end this Steve."

He could see the hurt in her eyes. He hadn't intended to get angry, but he hated the feeling of not knowing where she was and if she was okay.

"I know. I probably would have done the same if my family was involved." He lifted his hand to face and stroked her temples with his thumb. "I'm sorry I yelled. I'm sorry I didn't understand."

"You don't have to.."

"Yeah, Yeah I do. You've been amazing the last couple of days considering everything you've gone through and I was being selfish, even though…"he raised a finger in reprimand to her, "…you shouldn't have done it alone. I would have come with."

She smiled up at him. "Thanks. Next time I'll include you."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They both joined Danny as he stared at the overly large computer screen.

"They were following us." He seemed to be trying to work out the concept in his head.

"What? " Steve stared at the pictures. "But that picture of you Kono was at the children's surf day, that was a month ago. How did they know we were on the case then? We had just gotten it."

"There must be a mole in the governor's agency." Kono said the words quietly because she wasn't sure how the others would react at her assumption.

"Maybe. We need to find out who knew about us getting the case then." Steve picked up his cellphone and started dialling the governor.

Danny took the opportunity to speak to Kono. He walked up beside her and leaned against the table, facing her, as he spoke. "You two ok?"

"Yeah. We're good."

"Good." He paused briefly before prying a little more. "Good good or just good?" a smirk broke out on his face.

"Danny!" She shoved his chest playfully. "You have got a wild imagination, you know that?" Her eyes averted to the screen in front of them.

"uh huh. And now that you are avoiding eye contact with me its getting wilder." He playfully roared at her.

Steve watched on while still on the telephone with the governor. He was a little jealous of their relationship. She seemed so playful with him and he seemed so understanding of her nature. He ended his conversation with the governor and went to stand next to the two who were still giggling like schoolgirls.

"Care to share?" he asked

"No, we don't Simba!" Steve looked confused at Danny's movie reference.

"Ok then, can we get back to it." Kono and Danny gave each other a look as if they had been sent to the headmasters office.

"Yeah ok." Danny tried to look serious again.

"Well, the governor has given me three names of people that knew that we were on the case. We're going to have to check them all out and see what we can find out. I think we should each take a name and get to it. We need bank and phone records and anything else that could be relevant."

They all got to work, pulling records of each of the names. It was now late at night and Danny started to yawn.

"Go get some sleep Danny, I got this." Danny wasn't really sure of Steve's motives, but accepted them anyway. He went into his office and curled up behind Rachel while she slept.

That left Steve and Kono at the evidence table working on the three suspects' files. Steve stared at her as her hair fell in her face while she was reading some of the papers in front of her. She stood from her chair and leaned over the table pushing information onto the big screen, analyzing it with such detail. She sighed in frustration.

"This is going to take us forever. I haven't seen a single thing linking this Jessica woman to any of 'the family'."

"We'll find something. You just have to be patient. This guy Ralph isn't a bouquet of roses either." He was still staring at her when she finally looked in his direction. She smiled. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"No." he felt embarrassed that he had been caught staring. "You just look good for somebody that was in an explosion, running through the jungle and got shot."

She smiled back at him. "Coffee. It works wonders. Want some?" She headed to the kitchen area. He stood and followed her.

"Don't mind if I do." He stayed in the doorway, leaning against its frame as he watched her grab two mugs and pour coffee for them both. She handed him his. He took it from her, but never moved out the doorway. She smirked at him.

"The works in there." She pointed to the main room of the office.

"Yeah, but I think we deserve a 5 minute break."

"Ok, so what's on your mind?" She hoped it was her.

Steve wanted to tell her, but he felt foolish. He decided to downplay his emotions at the moment. "How's your leg?"

"Its ok. Stings a bit every now and then." Kono decided not to beat around the bush. "Is that what you were really thinking about?"

He smiled at her forwardness. "No." She raised an eyebrow in question at him. Her big brown eyes staring up at him, waiting for him to make a move. "Actually…" he brushed her arm with his hand, " I was thinking about how worried I was about you today and how I was so relieved when I found you."

Relief. That was why he kissed her. She seemed sad at that moment. "Yeah,, thanks for that by the way."

"Kono, I don't know what I would have done if anything had happened to you."

"Nothing did. Well, almost nothing." She tried to make the conversation more light hearted, but before her effort made any difference his faced leaned closer to hers and lightly kissed her lips. She shivered and sighed at the same time, but never pulled away, rather kissing him back. He was delighted. She was kissing him back. When they both finally released each others lips they smiled to themselves.

"Kinda weird." Kono was the first to break the silence.

"Weird? Is that how you would describe it. First time I've heard that."

"Not the kiss, the feeling. You being my boss and all. You know, weird?"

"Well, would you rather I have met you on the beach or in a chat room." She smiled as his playfulness. As soon as the smile had appeared it disappeared, turning into a look of delight.

"Chatroom!" she squealed.

"Seriously? You're in to that?" he was most confused.

"No! Chat rooms." She pushed past him and ran to the evidence table. She fiddled with the electronic table and pushed some information onto the main screen.

"IP addresses! They could have been talking to each other in chat rooms. Code and all that, so that nobody would find out they spoke."

"Good thinking." He concentrated on what she was doing. She pulled some files and pressed what seemed like millions of keys on the computer. Finally she had what she had been looking for. The IP address from Marcelo's home matched one linked to the governor's office, more specifically, Jessica Simons' computer. It had been used before they arrested Marcelo and after.

"Got it!" She gleamed with joy, almost shouting the words.

"We need to wake up a judge." Steve got out his cell and called the governor. She wasn't thrilled about being woken up, but obliged with Steve's request when she heard one of her own was involved.

Kono raised her hand in questioning what the governor had said. "She's waking the judge as we speak. We'll have the warrant within the hour." The both smiled contently at each other, for a moment forgetting what had happened in the kitchen only minutes ago. They were back to solving the case. It seemed only right to end all of the chaos first before picking up where they left off.