Hawaii Five-0

Caught In The Crossfire

Chapter 15

No one moved or made a sound after the shot was fired. The only sound that could be heard was the crying of April's baby while Nathan held her; April and Rachel both lay bleeding on the floor. Matt lay underneath Pedro. Both frozen in shock, they stared at each other, trying to figure out which one of them had been shot. Matt couldn't feel a thing; he was wondering if it was him that had been shot and it was the adrenaline coursing through his body that prevented him from feeling any pain.

Much to Matt's relief, Pedro's grip suddenly loosened before he collapsed on top him. Matt could the warmth of the blood from Pedro's gunshot wound on his chest. Letting go of the gun, Matt then pushed the dead weight that was Pedro's limp body off of him. Pedro's body rolled onto the floor without a fight. Matt then tried to catch his breath as he picked up the gun, but it was far from over.

"Mattie!" Danny continued to yell. "Mattie, what's going on? Are you alright?!"

"I'm okay!" Matt replied, much to Danny's relief.

"Now I just have one more thing to take care of" he added.

"Mattie, what are you talking about, what happened?" Danny asked.

"Are April and Rachel okay?... Mattie?"

"Put the baby down Nathan" Matt ordered.

"Now why would I do that?" Nathan asked as he pulled out his gun from his back pocket.

"After everything she did to me"

"April didn't do anything to you" Matt stated.

"She's the reason I'm going to be in prison for the rest of my life!" Nathan yelled, startling the baby.

"You stabbed her and left her to bleed to death on the floor of my brother's house!" Matt yelled back.

"You killed your own unborn child!"

"Clearly you haven't been paying attention to me" said Nathan.

"April walked out on me; we were going be a family and she walked out on me!" he yelled.

"No, no, no don't do that" said Matt.

"Don't make yourself out to be the victim here; you hit my little sister and you left her with no choice"

"Like I told April before, it still hurt" Nathan replied.

"Not as much as you were hurting her" Matt stated.

"She was terrified to be in the same room with you; and clearly, she was right to be"

"Doesn't matter now" Nathan stated.

"I still going to get what I came for; the very same thing she took away from me"

"Just put the baby down Nathan" Matt pleaded. "Please, just put her down"

"If I do that, then everything leading up to this moment will of been for nothing" Nathan stated before hearing the sound of helicopters getting closer and closer until they stopped right on top of them.

"Sounds to me like you're running out of time; won't be long now before HPD and Five-0 show up" Matt stated.

"The offer still stands Nathan, if you put the baby down, you can run; no one else has to get hurt, no one else has to die" Matt promised as the helicopters hovered right on top of them.

Still making his way down the Kalanianaole Highway, Steve's phone lit up as the call he and his team had been waiting for finally came through; their friends had finally been found.

"This is McGarrett" Steve answered.

"Commander, we have a location" the helicopter pilot replied.

"Are you sure?" Steve asked, just wanting to make sure that they didn't waste precious minutes going on a wild goose chase.

"Yes" the pilot replied.

"We can see a couple of cars and a van parked outside some old beach houses"

"Okay we're on our way" Steve replied. "Send me the coordinates and get the medivacs out there"

"You got it" the pilot replied.

Chin and Kono continued to follow closely behind Steve when Chin's phone rang, coming up with Steve's name.

"Steve, what's up?" Kono asked.

"The choppers got a location" Steve replied.

"That's great" Kono exclaimed.

"Are they sure?" Chin asked.

"Yeah, they found an abandoned pier with a couple of cars and a van parked outside" Steve replied.

"I'm sending you the coordinates" he stated.

"Okay, we've got it" said Chin.

"Let's just hope we're not too late" said Kono.

"Yeah" said Steve as he and his two team mates turned on their lights and sirens as they raced to rescue their friends.

"So what's it going to be huh?" Matt asked as he kept his gun trained on Nathan.

"You put the baby down willingly and walk or I'll force you to; either way, you're putting that baby down"

"Yeah and in both scenarios I lose" Nathan stated.

"That's the idea" Matt replied. "Now, what's it going to be?" he asked.

"Okay fine" Nathan replied. "I put the baby down and I walk?" he asked.

"Yes" Matt replied frustratingly.

"Okay, I'm putting the baby down" Nathan stated as he lowered himself to the floor, still keeping his gun trained on Matt.

"Don't do anything stupid" Matt warned him.

"I won't if you don't" Nathan replied as he placed his knees on floor before he slowly lowered the crying little baby girl, wrapped snug in a white blanket, to the floor.

"I'm heading for the door now; and don't think this over" he said as opened the door and walked through before closing it behind him and locking it.

Once Nathan had left the room, he headed over to the other beach house where Danny and Grace were being held. Pedro was more than likely dead and his plan had taken a severe nose dive; it was time to collect Enrique and Raphael and get the hell out of there. Especially before the cops showed up; because he knew that if they didn't, they were all dead too. After unlocking the door, Nathan pushed it open and was met with the four people he expected to find. He was also met with two confused looks from Enrique and Raphael's faces.

"What's going on?" Enrique asked.

"Where's Pedro?" Raphael asked.

"He's dead" Nathan replied.

"Matthew shot him; your brother shot him!" he yelled, pointing at Danny.

"Like that was my fault!" Danny yelled back.

"That man got me out of prison after your little sister put me there!" Nathan replied.

"What did you do to April, huh?" Danny asked as he looked Nathan up and down, eyeing the amount of blood on his clothes; only to be met with no response.

"What did you to her?!" he yelled.

"I tried to take what she took from me" Nathan replied.

"But your brother was very adamant not to let that happen; so your little baby sister April is probably going to bleed to death for nothing" he added.

"Wasn't that what you wanted anyway?" Danny asked, as he put his arms up and around Grace and held her up against his chest as the yelling and the talk of her aunt's situation scared her; even though his wrists were still bound by the zip ties and the fact that he had been shot in the shoulder, he was still able to manage.

"Yeah, that is what I wanted…eventually" Nathan replied.

"I wanted her to suffer first, just like I did; which is why this is not over" he said as he motioned for Enrique and Raphael to leave the beach house.

"We'll be seeing each other again very soon" Nathan promised as he pulled the door closed behind him and locked it; leaving them to fend for themselves until help arrived.

As soon as Nathan left, Matt rushed over to April and the baby. The little baby girl seemed unharmed as she cried for her mother, who lay unconscious and bleeding on the floor just a foot away. Seeing that the baby looked okay, Matt quickly rushed to his sister's aid. Kneeling down at April's side, he placed two of his fingers on her neck to check for a pulse. A wave of relief washed over him when he found a pulse, it was racing, probably because she was starting to go into shock, but it was there; and at this point in time, that's what mattered.

"April…April…" said Matt as he tried to coax April to wake up, with no success.

"Just hold on, you're going to be okay" he said trying to assure both her and himself as grabbed the backpack Nathan had left behind and found another blanket, just like the one the baby had been wrapped in, and used it to place pressure on April's stomach.

"Mattie!" Danny yelled.

"Yeah?" Matt replied.

"How bad is it?" Danny asked.

"It's…its bad Danny" Matt replied.

"She's losing a lot of blood; I putting pressure on it, but it's almost soaked straight through"

"Well look, it's better than nothing okay" Danny replied.

"Just keep doing what you're doing until help gets here; which by the sounds of those helicopters, it's not too far away"

"Are Mommy and Auntie April going be okay Danno?" Grace asked.

"I hope so Monkey, I hope so" Danny replied as he held his daughter.

In the time since Steve, Chin and Kono got the call from the helicopters that their friends had been found they had probably broken dozens of road laws to get to their location. Fifteen minutes after receiving that call about their friends, they soon spotted the two helicopters hovering over the location. With lights still flashing and sirens still blaring, they made their way in the direction of the helicopters. More lights and sirens became evident as HPD caught up to them and two more helicopters, more specifically the medivac choppers moved in overhead.

Their friends had been missing for several hours now and they were finally relieved that they were going to be able to bring them home. Bring Rachel back to her husband and son, bring April back in time to be there when her husband Michael arrived home from his deployment, bring Danny back to Gabby and bring Grace back to her ohana. But in reality, it wasn't going to be that simple; nothing ever really was.