Hi Everone,
Not as long as I'd hoped but it felt like a good place to end. A massive shout out to the amazing stefrosacarnevale for her beautiful reviews on every chapter. Please enjoy and accept I am not a doctor.
Me no own.
Rose xx
Steve didn't admit it often, but he'd been wrong. The swim had not made things better, and by the time he pulled into work, he was feeling a thousand times worse than the previous night. But showing weakness was never part of the McGarrett's arsenal hadn't there were kids and their families relying on 5-0 being in peak condition. Strolling pass their security guard, Teddy, with a small smile in greeting, Steve was glad to see that as usual, he was the first-person in. Settling at his desk, he began going over the files for The State of Hawaii Health Service Adjustment January 2011. The file contained mainly information on the policy itself, the facts and figures behind it and the subsequent cuts to various other public health funds. That was what was niggling at Steve. The cuts to other sectors. Rationally, it was the only part of the policy that someone could be mad about. His thoughts are cut off by a knock at the door. He looks up.
"Morning Kono."
She smiles. "Hey boss, everyone's here and Danny has something. You want to come out here?"
"Yeah, be right out." Steve checks his watch as Kono retreats, surprised to see it's been almost two hours since he got in. Huh. Standing, he wasn't quite sure where the time had gone.
"What've you got?" The rest of the team were around the table, Danny was quick to flick a file onto the projector.
"I got this last night from Mrs. Linton. She said she'd remembered an email for the senator that had come through her around the same time the policy passed. It didn't make much sense and she hadn't thought about it until we saw her yesterday."
The email is only a few lines.
Senator Bailey.
.com
This is what you've done.
"The link is to a research site for Batten Disease."
"Which is?" Kono asked the question on Steve's lips.
"I had a look last night," Danny replied, clicking the link and showing the site. It's a rare degenerative disease that slowly kills the nervous system. Usually, it starts in kids when they're five to ten and they slowly lose their site and start to have seizures. The expected lifespan is late teens to early twenties. There's nothing they can do yet, nothing that even slows it down." Steve could see the strain on his partner's face and the fact he is thinking of Grace is not a hard leap to make.
"Great. But what has this got to do with anything?"
Danny sighed. "I really have no idea. But I sent the email to each of the offices for Hirono and Jenkins and they both reported having received the same email. Danny hits a few more buttons and two emails flash onto the screen, the same as the first bar the name at the top.
"Well, at the least we know we're on the right track with the health policy. We'll…" feeling a tickle in his throat, Steve turns from the table and lets an explosive series of coughs out. He turned back to see the concerned faces of his team.
"Just a tickle guys, chill." He brushed their concern off. "We'll split up again, me and Chin will head to the hospital and ask about the email. You two," he looks at Danny and Kono, "Head to the records again. I want everything on the health policy and while you're there, anything in the history if the State of Hawaii to do with this Batten Disease, okay?" Everyone nods, and once again, the team departs, hoping for the sake of the children in the hospital that they'd find something soon.
Steve knocked on the door to Declan Jenkin's room. He was met by the haggard face of the usually put together Harold Jenkins.
"Congressman Jenkins, thanks for agreeing to see us." Steve shook the man's hand.
"Harry please, and of course, anything we can do we will, of course."
"We wanted to inquire as to an email you got after the health policy you signed for."
"The one your partner emailed my secretary about last night? Yeah, I got the same one. T freaked me out a little, I looked up that Batten thing and man, it scared me good. What having kids and reading about something like that? Yeah, shook me up. But I never heard anything again. Anyway, it wasn't a threat so we didn't forward it on to security, the email was bogus but we never got anything from the same address again so I guess I just sort of, forgot."
"Alright. And how is your son doing today?"
Sadness lines the Congressman's face. "he's holding his own. His temperature's at 102 but it's been steady since late last night. His breathing's gotten worse though."
"We're doing everything we can to help find whoever did this and you have the best team available here at the hospital analysing whatever this is to find a cure."
The man smiles at Chin, at that moment every bit a father, the politician Steve knows is buried somewhere not showing. Suddenly, Steve feels his stomach turn.
"Well, thanks for your time Harry. Chin, meet me in the car. Just going to hit the head on my way out." He leaves the room and once out of sight increases his pace until he's nearly jogging. Finally skidding into the bathroom, which is mercifully empty, he drops on his knees in the nearest stall. The half of a protein shake he'd managed to choke down made a grisly reappearance. Wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, he stood, confused by the shakiness he felt. This bug, whatever it was, had chosen the worst time to hit. But he was no wimp, so he rinsed his mouth and squared his shoulders, before heading to the car.
"You okay brah?" Chin is nothing if not observant.
"Yeah, yeah. Why?" Casual indifference. It's one of his strong points.
"You look kinda pale, took a while back there. We need you at one hundred percent. So again, you all good?"
Steve shifted the car into gear, watching over his shoulder as he reversed. He forced a laugh that turned his stomach again. "Yeah Chin, all good."
"Let me ask Kono, does Steve hate you? Does he hate me? Because it sure seems like it." Danny huffs even as Kono laughs, and they rifle through another pile of boxes. As it turns out, the health policy had been a much bigger deal than even the media had made it out to be there were countless people involved, though the three front-men (or women) had been Jenkins, Hirono, and Bailey. The funding had been massive, and it had come from countless places.
"Oh my god. I've actually got it." Kono stared at the file she was holding, Danny immediately over her shoulder reading along.
"I don't see it."
"This is a list of small research grants that had been promised in 2010 but were cancelled for funding for the health policy. And number ten was a grant to Jacob Bell, for research into life improvement and extension treatments for Batten Disease. It had only just started official work when they announced it's cancellation."
"That's got to be it." Danny pulled out his phone, snapping photos of the file. "What's the research's reference number?"
Kono strung off a string of digits and Danny moved around the shelves, eventually coming to stop in front of the relevant section. He reached for the file. It wasn't there.
"Kono; you said file 6809, right?" within seconds, the youngest member of 5-0 was next to him.
"Yep."
"Well, that's 6808, and there's 6810. There is no 6809."
"You sure?"
Danny gave a cursory glance at the surrounding shelves. "Positive."
"Then I guess it's time we give Jacob Bell a visit."
Chin and Steve arrived back at The Palace only to be stopped at the entranceway.
"Governor, how may we help you?" Steve tries to hide the surprise at seeing the woman.
"Steve, I got a call from the hospital shortly after you left. They've found some information about the pathogen and it's on your desk."
"Thank you, ma'am, but if you don't mind me asking, how come you were called?"
"The staff also needed to inform you that both the Jenkins's boy and Hirono's have had o be incubated. They're breathing has deteriorated and the staff are saying it looks like if we don't have something to slow this down, they'll be in complete organ failure by the end of the after next."
"Alright, thanks for telling us. Danny and Kono have something and they'll be back soon. I can assure you we're doing everything in our power to find whoever is responsible for this and bring them to justice."
"See that you do, commander."
Steve and Chin made their way up the stairs. "She's in a bad mood," Chin commented.
"Probably the pressure of the politicians." He spied the file waiting on their table. "Let's see what we have here."
Loved it? Hated it? Let me know. New chapter out on Thursday as well as the long-awaited sequel to Broken Blue with Steve and Danny's wedding. Please review and thanks for reading.
Rose xx