Chapter 9 -

Several minutes later, Danny pulled up in front of the white house that belonged to his ex, Rachel and her current husband, Stan. He put the car in park and shut it down, sitting there. He didn't know whether to be upset or happy that he had a son.

As Danny opened the door, he had a thought, if this all came out, it would mess the little family that Rachel had created with current husband, Stan, and Danny didn't want to be responsible for breaking them up. And then there was Gracey, what would that to do her to know her mother had lied about the baby? A guilty feeling came over Danny as he walked up to the door, and knocked. No, he wasn't going to tell Gracey about the baby.

The detective pushed the doorbell and waited for Rachel or even Stan to answer the door, but after a few minutes, a man in his forties, dressed in a black suit, opened the door. He looked as though he was a butler. When did they hire a butler? Danny shrugged it off. He was there to ask questions about the baby.

"Is Rachel here?"

"Who shall I say is calling?" The man asked.

Danny looked around the man in the suit to see if anyone was around, but it seemed quiet. Maybe they were all the hospital. Danny should have gone there first to find out, but the hospital wasn't a place to talk about it.

"Danny Williams. I am Grace father."

"Mrs. Edwards is at the hospital right now with the baby."

"Ah, well, let Mrs. Edwards know that it is urgent that I speak with her."

"Very well." The butler shut the door.

As Danny turned to head back to his car, his cell rang. He went to reach for it in the back pocket and realized it was in the car. He hurriedly opened the door and reached for it, but it was too late, the call had ended. He looked at the display. It was Steve. Danny pushed redial and waited.

"Where are you are at?"

"Took a little detour..." Danny glanced back at the house before getting into the car. "I'm on my way." He shut the car door and ended the call. He wasn't in the mood to talk about the news until he talked with Rachel.

While Danny took off towards headquarters, Elisabeth sat nervously in Steve's office, going over evidence from another open case, but it didn't keep much interest for her. She kept thinking about what she was planning. It was the only way to make sure that everyone was safe of Wofat. It had to work!

Glancing at her watch for the umpteen time, Elisabeth decided it was time to put her plan in action. She pushed away from Steve's desk, and walked out of the office. She needed away to get away without them actually questioning her just walking out without telling them something. Lunch! She would offer to get them lunch. It was easy enough, no one would suspect otherwise, well that was until she didn't come back right away.

Elisabeth took a deep breath and walked over to her friends. She hated more than anything that she was going to lie to them. It wasn't like everything was going to come together right away. It was going to take some planning though. The drive over to her place would give her that time to think.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna go grab some lunch from Kamekona's...do you want something?"

"The usual," Kono said, knowing what everyone else wanted. "Here. You're gonna need a ride, take mine." She tossed the keys to her friend.

"Thanks!" Elisabeth glanced at Kono and Chin and smiled.

To bad Steve was with the suspect, but it would make it harder for Elisabeth to lie to them. She turned and headed out, tears running down her face. They were more people she was going to lose, but it had to be this way!

Sliding into the car, Elisabeth put her seat belt on, and started the car. She slowly backed out of the parking lot, and instead of going to Kamekona's, she headed to her apartment. Several minutes later, she parked in the parking lot for the apartment, got out the car, locked it, and headed up to her apartment.

A few moments later, Elisabeth burst through her apartment, and shut the door behind her. She went straight to her bedroom, grabbed a large duffel bag from her closet and began going through her clothes, carefully selecting items that wouldn't look like she was packing in a hurry. She then went to her jewelry box and grabbed some of her keepsakes and stuffed them into the bag. If anything, she could sell them, though she would hate that more anything.

When Elisabeth was finished, she placed it by the front door, then she went to the TV cabinet across from where she'd been, opened the drawer, and pulled out a bag. She headed for the sofa, sat down, and quickly unzipped it, pulling out a camcorder.

Facing a camcorder to face her, Elisabeth turned it on, and took a breath before speaking. "This is my last will testament. I, Elisabeth Hollingsworth, bequeath everything that I own to my friends and coworkers, Chin-Ho Kelly, Danny Williams, Kono Kalakaua, and Steve McGarrett. You may take anything of my belongs and do what you wish, keep whatever you want, or just give it to charity. I trust your judgment. Please know that I love each one of you are you are so special to me. I will never forget you!"

Elisabeth pushed the stop button and then she took the tape out and reached for a pen and wrote Last Will in big letters. Then she set that aside and grabbed a fresh new tape. This one would be for Steve, and started recording. "If you're watching this, then you know I'm not dead. I faked my death. I thought this was the best way to get Wofat and make sure that he stayed in jail. It makes perfect sense if you think about it. No one would think twice about what he did because people know just how much he hated me. Hell, he's proved that many times over! I am so sorry that I did this to you. I never wanted to hurt you, that is why I fought so hard to keep from anything happening between us, but I got tired of fighting when we were in Forks. I so wanted you, I still do. I love you more than you will ever know! You'll be better off. And who knows..." Elisabeth started to cry. It was breaking her heard more than she wanted to admit to herself. "Who knows, maybe we will get together some day, but in the mean time, please don't find me. It has to be this way! I love you!" Elisabeth shut the camera off and set the camera aside, and she marked for Steve.

Quickly, Elisabeth packed the camera up and placed it back in the cabinet with the tape that said will. She stopped and looked around. There was so many things that she wanted to bring, but what could she choose that wouldn't look like she hastily grabbed them. A picture of her and her sister and one of her and one of her, Steve, Kono, Chin, and Danny. That's all she needed. She hurried over to the cabinet and took those two pictures, and rearranged the others so it didn't look like anything was missing, though her friends would know. She grabbed the tape marked Steve and the pictures, and held them closely.

Was Elisabeth forgetting something? Probably! She could get them on the run if need be, and what she didn't get, her partner in crime would get them for her. Taking a deep breathe, Elisabeth looked around the room, it was one of the last places she'd been. With a sigh, she hurried ran across the room, grabbed the bag, stuffed the items in it, and headed out.

Next stop, the appointment, but there was still time for that.

Several minutes later, Elisabeth pulled up to the spot. She looked down at her watch, it was awhile before the time set, but she got out of the car, shut door, and locked it as she headed toward a dilapidated house. She glanced both ways to see if it was clear before heading up to the house. The street was not busy at all, it was dead. The other houses on the road looked abandoned.

As Elisabeth walked up the steps, she grabbed her gun from her side, looked around the neighborhood, and opened the door with her free hand, and stepped in. There was a man standing in the middle of the room. He was of average height and weight and bald, but he held himself with authority. Elisabeth put her gun in the holster and shut the door behind her.

"I didn't think you'd be here!"

"Well, you should have checked to see if you were followed." The man turned around; it was Joe! "I've been following you back from the airport." Joe put his hands on his hips. "What is up?"

Taking a deep breath, Elisabeth moved closer to him, though she stayed away from the window. "I want you to fake my death!"

Joe looked genuinely surprised. "What?"

"I want you fake my death and I want you to plant the evidence on Wofat! I want it to look like a car accident."

That was definitely going to put Steve in even more pain knowing that his would-be girlfriend died the same way his own mother did. Yeah, it would hurt, but he would move past it and get on with his life. At least that's what Elisabeth had hoped, but deep down, she knew Steve would carry this pain along with all the other pain he carried over the years.

"You're a police officer; do you have any idea what you're doing?"

"I've thought about this, Joe, it's the only way. I'd leave those details to you."

"Do you really have any idea what this would do to Steve." Joe came closer, place his hands on her arms. "You'll be hurting him. You'll be hurting all of them."

"I know!" Elisabeth started to cry again. "I know, I'm going to hurt all of them. They're the only family I have left!"

"All the more reason to not do this!"

"If I don't do anything, Wofat is going to win, Joe. He kidnapped me and tortured me, not once but twice. Do you have any idea what that's like?" The tears flowed freely now and she just let go of all the pain she was keeping within her. "I have got to do this. Please just let me do this."

Joe drew her into to his arms and let her cry and after a moment, he said, "I have reservations of course, but I'll help you."

"I am sorry..." Elisabeth stepped back. "I know that this is going to put even more strain on yours and Steve's relationship..."

"We'll be ok!

Elisabeth dabbed at her eyes.

"Give me a few days to gather everything together. You'll stay in this house and once everything clears, we will move you to another location, one that's more secure that's more secure than this. You'll have to change your appearance. You will have to change everything about yourself. Are you really ready for this?"

"Yes!" Elisabeth sniffled. "I'm ready."

"Ok! I'll get some burn phones for us to communicate."

"I got a bag of stuff that I need to leave here. I kinda figured that I'd be staying some place." Elisabeth hurried outside and back inside undetected and dropped the bag off by the door. "There is a tape for Steve if he ever figures it out. Hell, he will figure it out anyway." Elisabeth unzipped the bag, grabbed the tape, and then she handed it off to Joe. My will is the cabinet by the TV."

"Ok!" Steve took the tape and stashed it into his shirt pocket. "I'll get in touch in a few days."

Nodding, Elisabeth left. Joe walked over to the window and saw that Elisabeth drove away. He shook his head. It was definitely going to be a mess when it was all said and done.

Danny sauntered in an hour an half later. He had intended to go back to work, but needed to be alone, to think things through about the baby. He didn't know what to do? If he did something, it was going to hurt someone.

"What's up?" Danny asked.

"Where have you been?" Chin chastised his friend in worried tone. "Steve called you about an hour and half ago. We've been trying to find you when you didn't show up, to let you know that we arrested our suspect.

"He admitted to killing the victim, but it was similar to how Elisabeth thought." Kono glanced up at Danny.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that." Danny said apologetically. "I needed to think about the baby and what I'm going to do about him."

"What do you mean?" Kono asked curiously.

"The baby is mine."

"What?" Chin blurted. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. The hospital called today; they did a blood test on him. I just don't know what to do about him. If I do nothing, I'm the one hurting. If I do something, I hurt them. I just needed to think about this."

"I'm sorry Danny!" Kono reached over and patted him on the shoulder.

"You'll figure it out." Chin gave a small smile. "Hey, where is Elisabeth? She was supposed to be bring us lunch two hours ago."

A few minutes later, Elisabeth brought in food for everyone. She had to give a reason why she was as late as she was and then she remembered, there was some kind of business convention in town and everything was jam packed.

"There you are!"

"Sorry, I'm late." Elisabeth set the food on the top of the computer. "It was wall to wall traffic heading to Kamekona's, so when I was able to get out of the traffic, I stopped somewhere else and picked us up something."

"I see you got me something," Danny looked in the bag. "I already ate, sorry. I think I'll go find Steve." Danny left the room.

Elisabeth handed the food off to Kono and Chin and Steve came in with Danny.

"Smells good," Steve said as Elisabeth handed his. "Come to my office, I want to talk to you."

The would be couple made their way into his office. He took a seat behind his desk and moved the evidence away, while Elisabeth sat on the sofa and she unwrapped her chicken sandwich to eat.

"In a few days, we're gonna go on a date." Steve opened his salad and he began to eat.

"Really?" Elisabeth looked at Steve.

Elisabeth hadn't imagined their good bye would be as special as Steve described it back in Forks, but she'd take it anyway. If it was their last time together, it would be bittersweet.

"What shall I wear?"

"Dress nicely, I'll pick you up at 7."

A real date! Ooh!

"I'll be ready!" Elisabeth took another bite of her sandwich. "So what about the case?"

"Oh you were right. The guy admitted to a very similar scenario that you had come up with!"

The job was something else that Elisabeth would miss. Maybe she could be a cop again in her new life. Nah, it would be to easy for her to be found out. Maybe she could help people in a different way. A lot of things to think about. She even wondering where she was going to live and who she would be. Joe would figure it out for her. It would be to hard and complicated for her to come with on her own. Being a cop, someone would have turned her in and everything would unravel.

Together, they sat in a comfortable silence, thinking about their date.

TBC