A/N: First off, I am so sorry for slacking off lately! Secondly, wow. Just wow. Twenty-one reviews on ONE chapter? Thank you guys so much. I hope you all continue to read and review this story. I will be sure to update more often than I have.

And on a more story-related note, I have heard that Steve's mom will be named Doris. Since I happen to think that "Doris McGarrett" sounds really, really weird, I will be calling her something else. It's not like the show will actually turn out like this anyway.

Chapter One "Welcome Back"

Danny sunk into the thinly padded waiting room chair and checked his phone for the fifty-sixth time, hoping to have a message from Steve. He had tried to call ever since he found out Malia was in surgery, while Kono was in some undisclosed location being guarded by an army of Yakuza. And that was a good thing.

Danny shook his head and put his phone away again. Chin hadn't said much since Danny had arrived the previous morning. Danny was used to his silence, but it didn't mean he had to like it. If Steve had been there, he would have said something. Not that Steve was much of a conversationalist, but words seemed to flow when the two of them were in the same room.

Of course, Steve would probably want to talk about Danny's custody issues, which was not a topic Danny relished at all. He had rather focus on Chin and Kono's troubles or even the semi-irritating Shelburne. By now, Steve would know who it was and why Joe had been hiding him. Part of Danny was curious, while another part of him wanted to forget Shelburne ever existed.

Kono hadn't called either, but somehow, Danny was less worried about her. She was with Adam Noshimuri, and whatever any of them had against him, he clearly cared about Kono and wouldn't let anything happen to her. Danny had already heard about the dead hit man on the boat. Hopefully, Delano wouldn't last long at this rate.

The more Danny thought about it, the more benefits he could see to Kono dating the head of the Yakuza. Not that he condoned all the illegal activities with which they were associated, but it was nice to know that in a place where most criminals really wanted Five-0 out of the picture, there was a large faction that had their backs. All because of Kono.

Danny should have been more concerned than he was about all this. But there was so much going on right now, that he decided just to be happy that Kono was okay and Steve had called him before he left. The more stressful things on Danny's mind were the impending departure of the Edwards family to Las Vegas of all the horrible places in the world, and the fact that Malia might not make it out of this alive.

H-5-O

Ginny felt cold. It was a humid evening. She was still sweating though the sun had gone down long ago. She was cold, even though she was still wrapped in her son's strong embrace. It had been growing more and more the last two years. She was cold on the inside. Dead or dying. She wasn't sure. But she knew she wanted it to stop.

He didn't ask her any questions like she thought he would. Ginny didn't think that meant Steve had lost his inquisitive nature. He was waiting for some other reason. Perhaps shock or confusion. Maybe he was just happy to see her. She could hope that was the reason.

It almost annoyed her. After keeping so much from him, keeping herself from him, she was so ready to tell him everything. Everything she could anyway. After all this time, she was done running and hiding. Steve was letting her off easy.

He hadn't moved from this posture since he told her he loved her. She knew he didn't want to let go. She didn't either. But there was too much she needed to say. It was why she had asked Joe to bring Steve in the first place.

"Steve?" she whispered.

He didn't say anything, but he loosened his grip on her, so he could see her face.

"Come with me." Ginny reached for his hand.

"Where?" Steve followed her out the door. He didn't sound all that curious.

"This is where I hide. I don't want to talk here."

He seemed to accept that as a reasonable answer and remained silent. Ginny remembered that Steve had always been the quiet one. He was like her that way. But he had his father's relentless drive to know everything. It would be coming out soon enough.

Ginny led Steve into the forest near the village and up a small path, almost obscured by the underbrush. They kept up a quick pace for about ten minutes before they arrived at a small clearing. They had climbed above the village, and they were overlooking the water. The moon reflected of the rippling surface. By the edge of the cliff, there was a pile of small boulders that looked as if they had been placed there on purpose.

"You come here often?" Steve asked. His voice sounded deeper outside.

Ginny nodded. "Gets crowded in there." She couldn't think of anything better to say.

"I can imagine. Hiding all this time must have been... difficult."

"Try pure hell." She shook her head. "I didn't want to complain."

"You never did. No matter how many late nights Dad worked or how many curfews Mary broke."

"Or how many broken bones you managed to get." Ginny smirked.

"Well, that hasn't changed all that much."

She shuffled her feet in the tall grass. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Let's see, it was my arm a year ago, my ribs a couple of months ago, and yesterday, I took six bullets to the back of my flack vest."

Ginny tried not to look horrified. She had seen worse things, but she was still his mother. The thought of him in pain made her want to kill someone. Now that she thought of it though, that had been the last twenty years. It still made her want to kill someone. Preferably the son of a bitch who caused all this trouble, but he was in prison, so that wasn't an option right now. It was better than him being free, but not ideal.

"Mom?"

Ginny realized she had been staring off at the ocean for a long time. Steve was standing beside her, looking concerned. "Why did you tell me that?" she asked.

Steve shrugged. "You seemed very interested in that the last time I saw you."

Ginny looked down and crossed her arms. "I needed to know you would be okay."

"Yeah, well..."

"You weren't; I know. If I could go back—"

"Don't go there. You can't go back. You don't get to unmake that choice, but you asked Joe to bring me here for a reason."

There it was. Steve didn't beat around the bush. He didn't make small talk. He got right to the point. Ginny had loved that about Jack.

"After I heard that you arrested Wo Fat, I knew I had to talk to you, so I told Joe it was time." She sighed. "It was time long ago, but there were too many things in the way."

"Things."

"I couldn't risk you or Mary getting hurt because of me. That's the one thing I really never could forgive. I wish there had been another way, somewhere we all could have gone together. Our lives would have ended up much differently, but then... maybe Jack would still be here."

Steve shook his head. "You didn't know that was going to happen."

"I should have seen it coming. Hiro warned me that Wo Fat was getting closer, and with Joe on some top secret mission, I was the only one who could have stopped it."

"You can't blame yourself."

"Yes I can!" Ginny turned to face Steve. "This all happened because of me. Because of my actions. I knew what I was doing. I knew it would come back to haunt me, and it has for the last twenty years. It's destroyed my family."

"We're not dead yet. And Dad knew what he was doing. He left me clues to everything. He wanted me to find out."

Ginny nodded. "Yes, he never did quite go along with the complete secrecy idea."

Steve's eyebrows raised. "He didn't?"

"No. He wanted you and Mary to know, but Joe and Hiro thought it was a bad idea, and I couldn't put you in more danger than I already had. I'm not saying it was right, but that's why I didn't tell you."

"That's why you left. To protect us."

"No." Ginny stared out at the water again. "I left because I would have died if I didn't."

H-5-O

They moved Kono early in the morning. They two guys guarding the no-star hotel room and Adam were the only people who knew where she was going. Adam promised better accommodations than the last, but he also informed her that he wouldn't be around as much for a while. The thought of spending the day alone with nothing to do at a time like this made Kono want to argue. But she didn't just yet.

The new place was a little house on Molokai. It was far away from everything, but Kono could tell it had been kept up for just such an occasion as this. She wondered absently how many places like this Hiro Noshimuri had on the islands. Or even all over the world.

It made her have to think about how much power Adam had now. She had already seen what he almost did with all that power before. She just hoped that he knew he didn't have to fall back on his criminal legacy to get things done. But he had already killed the man with the toothpick.

Kono explored the house. Her bare feet slapped on the wood floors, and a light breeze came through the open windows, blowing the sheer, white curtains back and forth. The place was decorated sparingly with sleek, modern furniture and a few paintings on the biscuit colored walls.

The guards were outside, probably keeping watch on the perimeter of the large property. Kono didn't miss the security system that Adam activated when he left. She wouldn't know where to start to turn it off, so she suspected it was partially there to keep her in. That was fair; she was impulsive enough to run off and trust that Adam would forgive her. But she had promised to stay for a couple of days at least. After that, all bets were off.

Kono sat down on one of the expensive couches in the front room and flipped on the TV. The cable package was impressive, but she couldn't seem to settle on anything. She really just wanted to call Chin and Danny, but her phone had been smashed by toothpick man, and Adam hadn't provided her with a replacement. She got up and looked around for a landline, but there wasn't one. Nor was there a computer.

The lack of contact with the outside world suddenly made Kono feel very claustrophobic. She looked around the living room, and her gaze settled on a large bookcase across from her. She went over to it and began fingering through the books. Most of them were in Japanese or she had never heard of them until she got to the bottom shelf where she found a bunch of children's books. She took out a stack of Dr. Seuss and sat down on the floor to begin flipping through them. Before she knew it, she was reading out loud to fill the silence.

H-5-O

It was late morning when Danny's phone rang. He almost fell out of his chair, and Chin gave him a half scared, half amused look. When he saw that it was Steve calling, Danny forgot about everything else.

"Where the hell are you?" He got up and started pacing without realizing it.

"Didn't I tell you?" Steve's voice sounded honestly confused.

"Out of town. Shelburne. That's all remember. Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

"It's a long story."

"Long story. Well, I have one or two of those for you, so again, where are you?"

"Japan. I probably won't be home for... a while."

"A while. What's going on now? I thought you said Joe was taking you to Shelburne."

"He did. It's just... complicated. As long as Wo Fat is still alive, she can't exactly come home."

"She? Home? What—"

"It's my mother, Danny." Steve sighed. "My mom is Shelburne."