***** HAWAII FIVE-0 *****
"2-4-1" - chapter 3 - Steve's decisions
A/N: I warned you at the beginning of this story that there is a character death. But will it be Steve? You'll have to read and find out.
A/N 2: in case you've fogotten, I'm a Stath fan. You'll know what I mean when you start reading.
***** HAWAII FIVE-0 *****
As Steve closed his eyes, he felt himself take a deep breath. Not that he needed to do it intentionally, that was not necessary, SEAL training would kick in automatically. A deep calming and focusing breath.
His eyes opened as he exhaled and it was as if he was seeing everything differently. Not that anything in his enviroment had changed, because it hadn't. Nothing inside him had changed either, it was more like a renewed sense of satisfaction and determination.
Satisfaction in the decision he had made. He could do nothing about his circumstances, nor anything to change them, Wo Fat had saw to that. But he could alter the outcome, and that would be something Wo Fat had not factored in nor could he do anything about.
Determination to take care of a few things with what time he had left. He reached for his phone, slowly and carefully. He had sensed it earlier, there in one of the many pockets of his cargo pants. His badge and gun were long gone, no surprise there, but he was glad to find his phone had been overlooked. Or maybe it was left behind on purpose. Either way, it didn't matter right now. He gently slid it from the pocket and speed dialed #7, being as careful as he could with his movements so he wouldn't trigger the motion sensors in the bomb. Steve was both grateful and luck to find that he had reception.
"Well hello, Sailor." Lieutenant Catherine Rollins answered from aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise docked at Pearl Harbor.
"Hey, Sweetheart." He replied, picturing her glancing around to see if anyone was listening.
"We haven't even set sail from Pearl yet. Miss me already?" She teased.
"Always." He answered. They had said their farewells the day before, as she was to spend some time at Pearl Harbor for meetings and briefings before boarding the Enterprise this morning and heading out to see for several days of training exercises.
"What's wrong, Steve?" She asked, a definite change in the tone of her voice.
"What makes you think there's something wrong?" He asked, knowing he could never fool her, and not sure why he was trying now.
"Steve," She cautioned.
"Yeah," He sighed, "Listen, Sweetheart, I've got a bit of a situation here."
Steve could tell Catherine was on the move as he talked to her. He could hear the hitches in her breathing as she manouvered the narrow halls of the Enterprise, probably seeking some place more private and quite for their conversation. Then, "Hey, Rollins, aren't you supposed to be-"
"Buzz off, Durran." He heard her mumble and could just picture her waving a hand in the man's general direction.
Clearly the other man was of an equal ranking, "Okay, but the Capt-"
"I said buzz off!" He heard her suddenly yell, although the phone was no longer near her mouth, "My boyfriend, who happens to be a SEAL, has a damn bomb strapped to his chest right now!" He heard a pause, although briefly, "He called to say goodbye, so ya think you could give me just a minute here!"
It was clearly not a question as he heard no other words from the man named Durran before the obvious sound of a door closing, leaving Catherine alone again.
"I'm here, Steve, I'm here." She assured him as soon as the distraction was over. "Oh God, Steve, this can't -"
"Shhh. Cath." He soothed her. Working in Naval Intelligence put her in the War Room on a regular basis, and seeing the uglieness of combat was nothing new to her. Catherine was anything but squemish. But, he reminded himself, this was much more personal. And he needed to hurry up. He didn't want to risk the bomb going off while they were on the phone together, like what happened when his father had died. He would never do that to her. He heard her breath hitch again and could tell she was trying to calm herself. "I, uh, I didn't call just to say goodbye. There's something I need you to do for me."
"What?" She immediately asked, a spark of hope in her that she could help him get out of this situation and she wondered if she should be in the computer room. "You need a satellite imagine? You need me to do a heat source check? What is it, Steve?" She asked eagerly.
"Nothing like that, Cath." He told her. He had no idea where he was, no clues available to help him. No, what he wanted was far more personal.
"Oh." He heard her breat out in dissapointment at not being asked to help him in some way.
"I need you to get something from my house." He said, hoping to redirect her attention. He could tell she had had her hopes at helping him dashed.
"Your house?" She repeated in surprise.
"Yeah, there's something I want you to have. You remember the security code, right?" He confirmed before continuing, "In the nightstand in my room you will find two small boxes." He paused, but not for long, as he didn't want her to ask what was in them. "One was my mother's, the other was my grandmother's. Pick one. You can have whichever one you want." There was silence on the other end and he could just picture her trying to process what he had just said. "Ya know, I uh, I tried that whole ring shopping experience, and I've gotta admit... that was not fun." He added lightheartedly, also wanting to confirm for her what he was getting at.
"Steve," She began. He was just trying to lighten the moment, she knew that, but it was just so hard with that image of him sitting on a hard concrete floor of some smelly old building in the middle of the jungle with a bomb strapped to his chest stuck in her mind.
"I mean, seriously, Catherine,..." He continued, wanting to continue with dialoge because it was better than hearing her cry, "... how do they expect us guys to do that? I went to so many stores, and honestly, I thought it would just jump out at me the moment I saw it. That I'd just know it was the right one. Ya know? But can it be that simple? Aparently not. I mean there's yellow gold, there's silver, then there's white gold that looks like silver. Would you want one band or two separate ones? Some of them didn't have diamonds, but it should have a diamond, or at least I thin-" He paused, "Are you laughing at me? You're laughing at me. Come on, Cath, give a guy a break. Why, oh why, do they have to have so many to chose from. Don't they know men shop for these things and we can't do more than three of anything?"
Laughing? How could she be laughing at a time like this? They were having this conversation over the phone because he currently had a bomb strapped to his chest and there was definitely nothing to be laughing about. "Oh God, I'm sorry, Steve." She offered.
"No. Don't be sorry, Sweetheart. I love the sound of your laugh and hearing it right now is,... " He paused, reminding himself that she would remember these words for the rest of her life. "... soothing." He finally decided on saying.
She took a deep breath, trying to slow her heart rate some, not that she expected it to work. But she would try, she needed to focus. "You, uh, you sounded a bit like Danny for a moment there." She managed to say.
'Great. Just great.' He thought to himself, but would never admit that he agreed with her assessment. "Anyway, I had decided that I would ask you with one of those two rings, but I couldn't even decide which one. So I ended up having them both cleaned and inspected by a jeweler, and, uh, well, that's as far as I got. So,... so now it's up to you to chose which one you want. Oh, and will you give the other one to my sister for me."
At that moment Steve heard footsteps coming down the stairs. The same three sets as before. There was not the sound of keys this time, just the door opening. The men entered just as before, Wo Fat apparently one for fan-fare.
"Pardon me for enterupting, Commander." Wo Fat said with a blank stare as he came and towered over him once again.
"Just taking care of some final business before we have our little discussion." Steve replied, hoping for just a few more minutes.
Apparently Wo Fat thought he had the advantage with Steve's current mind set of taking care of some 'final business' as he was inclined to let him continue. "You have ten minutes, Commander. Then you will tell me about Shelbourne."
There was no response given by Steve as Wo Fat turned abruptly and walked out, followed by his two guards.
"Cath," Steve said as soon as the door had closed again, knowing that she had heard the conversation.
"Steve, are you alright?" She asked, 'Oh, what a stupid question' she chastised herself.
"Yeah, I'm okay, Sweetheart." He assured her before picking up their conversation as if it had not been interrupted. He did not want her to dwell on the severity of what was going on, "I've got to tell you, Cath,... there has been so much in my life that,.." He paused, searching for words he had not been prepared to have to say today, "... well, from black ops and misisons to stop terrorists and arms dealers, to dealing with every kind of criminal, to traveling all over this planet and never never knowing where I was going to be the next day,... you have been the one good thing in all of that, the one constant in my life that I could count on." He paused again, trying to control his own breathing as the reality of never seeing her again, never holding her again, seemed to hit him full force, "Oh God, Cath, I'm gonna miss you." He breathed out as he closed his eyes and invisioned her face and the scent of her hair.
There was a long pause and he expected she would have said something by now, "Cath?"
"Ask me." She requested.
"Cath," He began quietly, and she could tell by the tone of his voice what he was going to say, so she cut him off.
"Ask me anyway." She repeated and he could hear the sadness in her voice.
"Ya know, I uh,... well, okay, so I didn't exactly have the details worked out, but I sort of presumed they would include a romantic dinner, and, ya know. Candles and wine, maybe on the beach." He said apologeticly, but got no reply, which was okay, because he knew he wouldn't. "Catherine Rollins, I love you. Will you marry me?"
"Yes." She immediately answered. And dispite the sadness of the situation, saying that single word made her smile.
Just two minutes later found him making another call after saying his final goodbye to Catherine, which had been so very hard on both of them, but there was one more thing he needed to tend to before he put his plan in motion.
"Berris and Takae." The receptionist answered.
Ten seconds later... "Miss. Takae, I canno-" Mr. Berris began. He was normally a mild mannered man, but his partner's neice, aka their secretary, had just barged into his office, interrupting his dictation of a very important contract.
"Mr. Berris," She began as she rushed to his desk, "Lieutenant Commander McGarrett is on line one for you."
"Miss. Takae, plea-"
"It's urgent, sir." Briana Takae insisted, as she went ahead and picked up the phone and held it out to him.
William Berris pushed the botton for line one, "Commander McGarrett."
"Sorry to bother you, sir, but I have a bit of an urgent situation that cannot wait." Steve began, then briefly explained the situation.
"Miss. Takae, you will be witness to Commander McGarrett's verbal signature to his yet unwritten will and testiment." Berris informed his secretary, who nodded as she took a seat with pen and paper in hand. "Commander, this phone call is being recorded for accuracey and will be typed up as soon as possible. Rest assured that your wishes will be carried out as you are about to direct." Berris assured Steve, then confrimed a few details for confirmation that it was actually him calling. "You may begin when ready, Commander."
There was only a brief pause before Steve spoke, "First off, the papers I picked up at your office, are partially filled out and in the top desk drawer at my home." He paused, this felt so weird, but it needed to be done and it gave him a sense of peace. And right now he was just glad this was a process he had already begun, "Most importantly, I want everything in my bank account, checking, savings, CD's, IRA's, insurance, ... basically anything financial to go to my fiance Lieutenant Catherine Rollins." He paused, realizing he had acutally smiled when he spoke of his fiance. "As for the house and everything in it, that goes to my sister Mary Ann. Well, it's half her's anyway. Dad had the house paid off years ago, so the only financial obligation is insurance and taxes on the property. If Mary should decide she doesn't want the house, I hope she will give it to either Catherine or my partner Detective Danny Williams. It would be great for Danny to get out of his apartment and have a nice house for he and his daughter Grace. Speakin of Danny, I want him to have the Marquis. I should forewarn you to expect him to rant about that, but tell him I said it's time he learned how to deal with temprimental classics. My father and I were supposed to work on that car together, but it never happened. Maybe Danny can teach Grace how to work on cars." Steve paused again, giving only a moment to acknowledge the image of the brown eyed little girl with pig tails. "Let's see, ... there is a trophy case in my old bed room, and in that case is a football. That is the football I broke Chin Ho Kelly's high school passing record with. I'd like Chin to have it, and please tell him,... tell him that my father was right. He'll know what you mean." Another pause, giving Steve a moment to remember meeting Chin again after all those years. "Next, there's something I want Officer Kono Kalakaua to have. Out in my garage, above the work bench, you will find a surf board. My dad was quite the surfer at one time and took me to many competitions when I was young. My father used that surf board to win a local amateur competition, then it was signed by Kekoa Malahono, right after he won the Pacific Waters Championship back in 1981. I want Kono to know how proud of her I am at her accomplishments, both on the board and behind the badge." Another pause, to remember meeting the woman on the waves that first day. "And then for Joe White, Uncle Joe, my father's best friend; there is a shadow box hanging in the master bedroom I want him to have. In that box is my father's badge and gun, and also his Certificate of Retirement from HPD. And tell Joe,... tell him that his obligation to my father is complete, I'm not seventeen anymore." Another pause as his cell phone indicated a text message. "Um, give me a sec here." He requested as he looked at the text.
'I do' was all it said.
Steve smiled and quickly typed back, 'I do, too', before retuning to the conversation.
"Uh, well, that's about it, I don't own much else." Steve said, resuming from where he had left off. It was true, he wasn't a materialistic person, keeping things that had meaning and not much else. "Well, there is my badge, assuming it ever gets recovered. Oh, and my dogtags. I guess they can decide among themselves who gets those."
After a pause and Berris assumed Steve was finished, he asked, "Is there anything else, Commander McGarrett?"
"Probably." Steve stated with a smirk, "Not that I can think of it right now, though."
Mr. Berris and Miss. Takae both understood, giving a verbal will under such circumstances was very hard. Not that they had ever had anyone call with a bomb strapped to them before, but they had done deathbed kinds of things in the past. "Take your time, Commander. We will continue to record until after you have hung up."
"Just," Steve began again, trying not to cringe at Berris' use of the word 'time' which was something he did not have the luxury of, "tell them how grateful I am to have had them all in my life. They are all special to me and I hope they already know that, even though I wasn't very good at saying it. Emotionally constipated; that's what Danny says I am. But you can tell Danny that my final face is one of determination." There was a long pause, "That's all." Steve finally said as he heard the footsteps on the stairs.
"Is there any contact information we will need?" Berris asked. The reading of a will was made much harder when those in it could not be reached easily.
"No, Sir. All of that is already in the papers at my house. But have my team contact Commander Wade Gutchens. They should tell Commander Gutchens; SEAL Team 5, Beamer, Diego 4. He'll know what it means." Steve concluded as the door opened again.
"It's time to talk about Shelbourne." Steve heard Wo Fat say as he entered again with the same fan fare as his previous entrances.
"I've gotta go." Steve said to Mr. Berris and hit the end button before the man could reply. He glanced at the phone in his hand as he gently laid it on the floor beside him, thinking briefly about Catherine's text but not allowing his mind to dwell on the 'till deat do us part' part.
Wo Fat came closer and stood near Steve's feet as he spoke, "Goodbyes are hard. Are they not, Commander?" He asked as he noticed Steve glancing down at the phone. He wanted to rub it in as muc as possible.
"They can be." Steve said, not really answering the question. He wondered if Wo Fat thought he was scared or nervous. The man had caught him once before, but clearly did not learn much from the experience. Steve on the other hand had learned a lot.
"You will tell me about Shelbourne now." Wo Fat demanded without raising his voice.
"You mean about the man who killed your father." Steven asked as he looked up, as if to clairify, but not. He knew Joe had fed him a lie about being Shelbourne and killing Wo Fat's father, but also knew there would be no getting the truth out of him, at least not at the time. But playing along with the lie would work in this scenario, so that's what Steve would do.
The look in Wo Fat's eyes was one of anger and hatred and Steve noticed him clenching and unclenching his fists. He was sure that if not for the bomb that those fists would be doing double-time, making impact with his ribs. He could definitely work with this.
"So tell me, Wo Fat, did you design this bomb yourself?" Steve asked. Wo Fat was clearly taken by surprise by the question, and the diversion. "Because you did a much better job than Victor Hesse did." Steve added.
"I am glad that you are amused, and so easily impressed, Commander." Wo Fat said as he began to roam a bit. Steve stared straight ahead, not bothering to keep an eye on the man, he knew there would be the same stone faced expression and set jaw. The eyes would be the only thing to give the man away.
"Well, I don't know that 'amused' quite describes it. But I must say that the motion sensors are much more sophistocated. And the clips are much stronger, obviously making it harder to get off without detonation." Steve complimented. "Much better than the cattle prod approach of last time." He added.
"Your procrastination will not work, Commander. Now tell me about Shelbourne." Wo Fat demanded again as he turned to continue his pacing.
"Victor Hesse was one of your men, and the man who killed my father. Now I know who killed your father, and you expect me to tell you. Now why would I do that?" Steve taunted, needing the man to come closer.
"You will tell me what I want to know, or you will die." Wo Fat said.
Steve had to resist the urge to smirk at the obsurdity at the man's words. After all, what was he gonna do, come over there and hit him or shake it out of him. Nah, this would turn out the way he wanted. "So, does that mean that if I answer your question that you're going to remove this?" He asked, gesturing to the bomb.
Wo Fat gave no answer, nothing but a glare. His eyes again giving him away.
"Didn't think so." Steve said, gently leaning his head back against the wall behind him. "So, since you're gonna kill me anyway, maybe I'll just take that little secret to the grave with me. Then you will never know who killed your father." A look of 'what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it' on his face. Yes, if Danny was there, which he was glad he wasn't, but if he was he would definitely be able to identify the face.
Wo Fat stepped closer to Steve's left side. He was almost close enough for Steve's plan to work.
"Ya know, I think I am going to have to decline your offer." Steve continued, "I don't really see any point in telling you. Because if I did, then you would just have another person to kill, and I just can't have that."
Wo Fat crouched down next to Steve's side to speak through gritted teeth, "You will tell me, or you will die right now!"
Steve really was impressed that Wo Fat had cracked so soon. Losing controle, even enough to raise his voice was something he had expected to take much longer. Now there was just one more step to take for his plan to work. He just hoped his legs, which were actually quite numb at this point, would cooperate since he had been sitting on that cold hard concrete floor for so many hours.
"Tell me who Shelbourne is!" Wo Fat demanded as anger poured from him over Steve's defiance.
"No." Steve declined, looking straight ahead in continued defiance.
"Then are you ready to die?" Wo Fat screamed at the side of Steve's face.
Steve slowly turned to look at the man, then asked, "Are you?"
As soon as those words left Steve's mouth he dug both of his fists into the front of Wo Fat's shirt, and pulled as hard as he could to his right, rolling both of them over so that Wo Fat was down on the concrete with Steve on top of him, their faces only inches apart. This new vantage point lasted for only a moment before the explosion, but it was enough to see something in Wo Fat's eyes that he doubted had ever been there before; fear.
Steve had been right, the last thing Wo Fat ever saw was the look on his face; determination.
Game over. Mission accomplished.
***** HAWAII FIVE-0 *****
So, honestly, how many of you saw that coming? That Steve would die, but take Wo Fat with him?
There is one more chapter to wrap this up.
In regards to Kekoa Malahono winning the Pacific Waters Championship... I just made that up. So nothing but coincidince if there really is a PWC or someone named Kekoa Malahono.