Troubled Waters VII

Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii 5-0. I enjoy playing with the characters and promise I will put them back as I found them.

I know I am a bit slow with this update, I was up north and the muse vanished into the woods and refused to come out and help until it was almost time to go home. At least she came out and let me finish this chapter. Blame her if it seems a bit rushed.

Chapter 7

Terry tripped on the uneven terrain as he approached the tree that Steve was hiding beside. He walked past, not looking very hard into the brush, wishing that he would just stumble on McGarrett's body and have this hide and seek over with. Pausing to wipe the sweat off his brow, Terry stood with his back to where Steve crouched, waiting to strike. Raising his rock higher, Steve pushed off from the tree trunk and moved forward, ready to bring the rock down on Whitley's head.

The rustle of brush as he moved was enough of a warning to startle the jumpy gunman and he pivoted to see what was behind him. The rock came down forcefully on Terry's right shoulder, hitting a nerve that numbed his arm and hand, causing him to drop the weapon. The rush forward had McGarrett hitting Whitley in the chest, knocking the man on his back with Steve on top of him.

Still holding the rock, Steve tried to smash it into Terry's face but Whitley brought a knee up into McGarrett's injured left side. Steve dropped the rock and desperately gripped the other man's shoulder as he tried to block out the throbbing in his side. Terry flipped them over and McGarrett felt as well as heard a crack from the pocket that held his cellphone. He knew that he had rolled over the rock and most likely had broken his one contact to his team. Steve leveraged his weight to keep the roll going and once more ended up on top of his adversary. Planting a knee on either side of the man, Steve brought his forearm up into the man's throat and pressed tightly.

"Who the hell are you?" Steve gasped as Terry grabbed at his arm in an effort to dislodge the pressure on his windpipe. McGarrett leaned forward, using his weight to apply more pressure and used his left arm to hold his forearm in place. Willing to not receive an answer to his question, he continued to lean on the man to make him pass out. Whitley continued to struggle but felt his vision going dark as he was unable to draw a breath and then lost his fight to stay conscious.

Steve felt the man beneath him go still and as Terry's hands fell limply at his side, McGarrett sat straighter and removed his arm from the blonde man's throat and touched his fingers to feel for a pulse. A faint beating could be detected and Steve rolled off the man and lay on his back staring up at the treetops. The effort to subdue Whitley had drained McGarrett and for the moment he was unable to move even as his brain told him that he should get up and get away.

Carefully he adjusted the makeshift bandage around his middle, noticing the dark shirt was even darker in places with blood. The steady throb in his side was duller than before but acted as a ticking clock, reminding him that he needed to get to medical care and couldn't just lay there waiting. Pushing himself to a sitting position, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw many broken lines in its face that told him that he had lost his link to his team. He dug into his other pocket to pull out the phone he had taken from the car floor and found that its battery was dead. In anger he threw that one down on the ground and forced himself to his feet. He had to get to the road and find his way out of this jungle. He knew his team was searching for him and now it was up to him to help them out by making things easier. Checking the area around him, he found the gun next to the unconscious man and picked it up. Taking a few moments to orient himself with where he had come from, Steve determined the direction he was most likely to find the road that they had traveled to get to the buildings in the clearing. He wrapped his right arm around his body to anchor the shirt in place and set off in as quick a pace as he could manage. He wasn't sure how long his strength would hold out but he refused to let that control his thoughts and fell back into his military training that would not let him stop until he had accomplished his mission. As he saw the trees appear to be thinner ahead he felt a fresh jolt of adrenalin flow through him believing that the road was near. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other and didn't let any negative thoughts to enter his mind.

*H 5-0*

Driving as fast as he safely could on the heading Kono had given him, Chin found his attention drawn from the road to his cousin as she let out an exclamation of dismay.

"The signal's gone. It just died," she said in disappointment. "Either the battery died or his phone is broken."

"Well we knew where the signal was earlier, right? It wasn't moving when we found it," Chin enquired. "We can just go to where you first saw it, right?"

"I had a rough idea Chin, reception is spotty out here," Kono reminded him. "That's a lot of space to search." She stared at the unresponsive device in her lap in frustration.

"We could drive right past his location. We need to pick the most logical place to start looking."

"Steve would head for a road. He knows we're searching for him, he'll do what he can to come to us," Kono said confidently.

"He will if he is able," Chin agreed. "But we can't just keep driving around hoping to stumble across him or that car. We need to do this the smart way, not just keep driving blind." Saying that, Chin slowed the car and parked on the side of the road. The Camaro followed suit.

"Prepare for a rant," Kono warned as she exited the car with the tablet. "Danny is not going to be happy about this."

Chin shrugged and turned to head to the back of the Mustang and meet Danny Williams who was already primed to explode.

"What the hell is going on? Why are we stopping in the middle of nowhere? Did you get a stronger signal here? I thought we needed to go further inland?" he demanded right on cue. Grover followed at a slower pace, letting Danny get things off his chest.

"We lost the GPS signal. The battery in Steve's phone must have died," Kono explained. She didn't even want to entertain the possibility of a broken phone that could mean that Steve had been recaptured.

"We can't keep driving around hoping we pick the right road," Chin spoke up to help Kono out. "Steve can't afford for us to just guess, we have to make some logical choices as to where we look for him. There are too many unmarked roads, private roads that don't show up on any maps. It's best to make a sensible choice of where we start to search so we have the best chance of finding Steve. We need to work out from where Kono thought that the signal was coming from and expand from there. Steve will likely try to get to a main road if he can."

"If he is on foot and we know he is injured, I would say it's likely he hasn't wandered too far from where we got his signal last," Lou stated.

Danny noticed the uncomfortable look on Kono's face and correctly guessed the young woman was not saying everything on her mind.

"Spit it out Kono. What aren't you telling us?" he asked shrewdly.

"I never had a steady signal. Like your phone call from him, my GPS indicator was not precise. I only had a general area to work with. It was the best I could do," she admitted sadly.

"Can you show us that general location on a map of this area?" Lou questioned.

"I can do that," Kono said, eager to do anything she could to make things better. "The problem is that as Chin said, not all roads are on our maps. Many are put in privately by landowners."

"Let's deal with what we have," Danny said, not wanting to dump on Kono. He knew she had given them all she could with what she had. "How close were we when the signal disappeared?"

Kono set the tablet on the Mustang's trunk as the men gathered around her. She pointed to the map on the tablet.

I last had the GPS locating him in this area. We're here. There are at least three roads that break off this road several miles ahead. It is the best location I could get given the spotty reception."

"I say we split up, each car take one of those roads and check them out along with any private roads. If we don't see Steve or that Taurus, we move on. We hope Steve finds a road and we pick him up," Danny said firmly. "Lou tried to contact Duke just before we stopped but we fell victim to the same lousy cell reception. I don't think backup will be showing up unless we get really lucky."

"That's all we can do for now," Chin agreed. He hated bringing up something no one else mentioned but they had to consider it. "It is going to be dark in a few hours and we won't be able to search after that. We need to cover as much ground as we can in the meantime."

The others nodded, knowing time was running short in more than just the fading daylight. None of them knew how badly Steve was injured and even if he was able to walk out of the jungle on his own. If McGarrett's injuries were very serious then the likelihood of finding their leader on a road was slim. It crossed all their minds that maybe they should have tried working the case from other angles and gathered information on who had killed the men on the Golden Dolphin instead.

Having the killer take Steve just moments before they arrived and then Danny receiving the phone call had made staying on the chase the logical choice but now with darkness coming, it was making them second guess their choices. They were so used to having their leader land on his feet and overcoming steep odds that it wasn't impossible to imagine McGarrett walking along the road, a smirk on his face and teasing them about being late. None of them wanted to let Steve down if there was the slightest chance of finding him before dark.

"Let's move," Grover said. "We aren't getting closer as we stand around here. Have you got a SAT phone since our cells aren't working out here?" He looked at Chin.

"I think I do," Chin said and opened the trunk after Kono removed her tablet.

"Knowing Steve, there's probably one in my trunk," Danny commented. "He's always putting things in there and not telling me," he added before jogging to the back of his car.

"We'll take the first road, you and Danny take the next," Chin instructed as he took the SAT phone out of its box. He showed the code on the back to Lou so he would know which number went with the phone. "I'll have Kono check in with Duke. Call if you find anything or need us."

"Will do," Lou agreed and headed back to the Camaro where a grinning Danny waved a phone while getting in the driver's seat.

"It pays to have a Boy Scout as a partner sometimes," he informed Grover as he handed over the phone once they both were in the car. "He also put a new, bigger first aid kit in there. Remind me to compliment him on his foresight."

*H 5-0*

Steve did literally stumble out of the jungle onto the dirt road that Terry had driven up earlier that afternoon. Now that he could see the sky and judge the direction the sun was headed, he could determine which way to go. Since he had not been able to follow all the directions the car had gone when bringing him out here, Steve had no idea where he was but he knew that the coast was to the west and that was the logical place to look for help. With his energy fading, he dug deep within himself and kept going, trying to put as much distance between him and the clearing. He had no idea how long the blonde in the jungle would be unconscious and if he would be sending others after him.

After travelling a few yards down the road, Steve saw an old, rusty sedan rumbling towards him, kicking up dust in its wake. McGarrett had shoved the gun in the back of his waistband and he debated pulling it out but knew that he already presented a disturbing picture with his bloody shirt tied around his torso. A gun would only make it more likely they wouldn't stop. He waved a hand at the men to try and get them to stop.

A balding man who appeared to be in his forties was behind the wheel and he stopped the vehicle a few feet away, looking concerned.

"What happened to you man? You're a mess," the guy said as a skinny redhead with glasses in the passenger seat watched. The younger man looked to be in his mid-twenties.

"I need help. I'm Steve McGarrett of 5-0. Can you take me to the nearest town? I don't know where I am," Steve said as he approached the car.

"Wal'anae is the closest but it is several miles away," the driver answered. "We can take you there."

"Let me help you, you are about to fall over," the kid said as he jumped out of the car and rushed to Steve who wavered and reached out to steady himself on the car door.

"I'm okay…I'll be okay," Steve protested. He twisted away to face the young man who came up beside him.

"You can barely stand," the kid corrected. "Let me help."

"Sir, do as he says, we'll get you to town," the driver urged.

Wary but exhausted, Steve stepped away from the car and pulled open the back door. He looked inside, not sure if he should get in.

The boy swiftly moved beside him and pulled the gun from the back of Steve's shorts as he shoved the wounded man into the back seat.

"Mr. Tambor is going to be very happy to learn this loose end is tied up," he laughed to the driver.

End chapter.

Maybe I should have left the muse in the woods. Thank you so much for reading. The muse has this review addiction so please help me out and give her one. Looks like the story won't be over for a bit.