Cujo III Reloaded – This Time It's Personal

Chapter 5

Here's the next. Hope you like. Thank you for your reviews, alerts and favorites which are invaluable in helping me get back into the groove. Sorry it's taking so long. As always; mistakes can be blamed on Imaginary Beta.

Disclaimer: Am not making any money from this. If I was, I'd be in Hawaii and probably doing some serious stalking. I'm sure I'd manage to have fun until the restraining order was issued.

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Not the Fun Kind of Pot

"You have something to do with this?" he accused the animal staring at him curiously from a few feet away. He scrunched his eyes shut as the one cat morphed into what seemed an entire herd of them and his stomach threatened to jettison his breakfast.

His head was pounding as he slowly sat up; trying to gather his wits and remember how he'd wound up on his kitchen floor.

"Steve!"

"McGarrett!"

"Boss!"

He heard three distinct voices from the direction of the front door but turning his head to see his visitors didn't seem to be all that great an idea right now.

Three sets of shoes clattered across the floor and three sets of feet, ankles, and legs came to stand in front of him. He didn't dare raise his eyes to look for faces. Feet and legs were good enough for now.

"What the hell?" exclaimed a voice that had to belong to Danny. Who else would wear patent leather loafers in Hawaii?

"Danny?" he managed to croak out as he pressed his hands over his face hoping to stop the feeling that the floor was undulating beneath him.

"Of course it's me. Who else would come look for your sorry ass?" Yup, Danny for sure.

When his hands were tugged away from where he'd clamped them; through the blur he saw pale eyes and a worry creased brow as his partner bent to peer more closely. Soon, another set of eyes were examining him; these were dark and quite lovely. Must be the rookie.

"Kono?"

"Yeah boss. What the hell?" Yup, Kono.

He groaned and began to struggle to his feet but hands pushed him back down and held him there by pressing on his shoulders.

"I don't think getting up right now is a good idea Boss." said Kono, "You look kinda like you did that time you got run over when you were chasing that perp."

"Not that I'm curious or anything but just how did you manage to crash onto and bleed all over your kitchen floor?" queried the blonde man.

"'m bleedin'?"

"Yeah moron, that red stuff dripping down your neck is a good indication you are." was his partner's rough answer; worry making him sound angry, "Kono, could you grab a towel so we can keep Rambo here from making such a mess?" then addressing the man on the floor, "You know; if you wanted the day off, you could've just said so. How the hell did this happen? Did someone break in?"

During this time, Cujo had been nervously pacing up and down the counter top and making worried little chirping noises. Danny knew Steve had stopped even trying to keep him off the countertops; it was a lost cause.

"Dunno . . . doin' stuff before s'time to leave . . . umm . . . woke up on the floor. Head hurss . . . Bleedin'?" he asked; speech not quite as clear as he'd heard it in his own mind for some reason.

"You've got a goose egg the size of Detroit on the back of your head and another small one on your temple along with a nasty cut and, since that's the second time you've asked me the same question in the last ten seconds, I'd say you've got a concussion as a bonus." answered Danny, alarmed at the slurred words and short-term memory issues.

"You're gonna at least need stitches Boss." exclaimed Kono, concern evident in her voice as well.

"'m fine." muttered McGarrett closing his eyes as the trip on the merry-go-round seemed to gather speed.

"Yeah sure, says the idiot who can't focus his eyes long enough to keep them open." - obviously Danny again.

"I don't see anything amiss. All the doors and windows are secure. We disabled the alarm ourselves when we came in." It was Chin's voice this time; coming from a little farther away and becoming louder as he entered the room. Steve could sense he'd kneeled or crouched before him with the others.

"How's our boy? Looks like he went a round with a crowbar." observed the Hawaiian detective.

"Alive but knocked stupid apparently. He's asked the same question twice in the last two minutes. Let's get SuperSEAL off the floor so we can see the extent of his owies." ordered the blonde.

"Don' have owies." Steve mumbled indignantly as he was tugged upward to sway precariously before a chair was shoved behind his knees and he plopped gracelessly onto it; his landing not as controlled as he would have liked. The jarring didn't do his already scrambled brain any favors. He could feel something dripping down the side of his face onto his neck before what felt like a towel was pressed over his right ear.

"Boss, you're gonna need stitches for sure. You've got a nasty cut there." Kono exclaimed; her cousin concurring with a murmur of his own.

It didn't seem like a good idea to open his eyes again. Getting his brain to reconcile multiple images of what he knew to be only three people was nauseating.

"Hey, Rambo! Look at me!" demanded Danny as Steve felt fingers under his chin to get him to tilt his head upward.

"Seen you before D. Wasn' pretty." he mumbled, stubbornly refusing to crack his eyelids.

"Open your eyes moron. We have to see if your marbles have stopped rolling around. If they haven't, an ambulance ride is imminent."

"No 'mblance" he declared, the word not quite coming out the way he'd intended.

"Uh huh." said Danny dismissively. "I said open your eyes. Now!"

Steve opened one eye cautiously; startled at his partner's face only inches from his own. "What the fuck D! Back off!" He jerked backward as Danny grabbed both sides of his face to peer into unfocused hazel-blue eyes.

"Hold still. I'm checking your pupils dammit!"

"I like you Danny but not in that way." groused the nauseous and dizzy man as multiples of his concerned partner now began to waver about before him.

"Shit. Your pupils definitely don't qualify you for the 'equal and reactive' round. You're going for a ride in the big white bus my friend."

"No, no hosp . . . hospital!" whined Steve whose complexion was taking on a distinctly greenish cast as Kono grabbed his arm to keep him from toppling from the chair.

"Too late Boss. Already on the way."

Sirens sounded faintly in the distance and grew louder with their approach.

"You wanna try again to tell us what happened? And don't you dare ralph on me!" exclaimed Danny still sounding concerned but less angry.

"Umm . . . was gettin' stuff out from the cupboards to pack for my mom's new place and . . . . ow!" he yelped as his fingers began to explore his battered skull and Kono slapped his hand away.

"There's a big, heavy, cast iron pot lying on the floor over here." said Chin from the other side of the kitchen island. "Looks like it probably rolled a ways after it hit the floor. I can see the dent where it landed. Lid's still set on the counter."

Cujo has been worriedly pacing up and down the long stone table as the familiar humans appeared to be helping the tall man. He knew something was wrong. It was such a strange time take a nap and his human never slept on the floor. It made the little cat anxious. Who knew that big metal thing would fall off the table when he jumped into it?

….

The trip to the hospital was mostly uneventful. As expected, stitches were required and the diagnosis of a concussion was confirmed. Also as expected, Steve threatened to dismember anyone who tried to keep him from leaving.

"For once! Just for once could you not make my life hell?!" groused Danny in a too familiar rant as he so very reluctantly handed his partner the bloodied shirt to slip on over his now bandaged head.

"Not making your life hell. I'm the one who got conked on the head!"

"Not hard enough. If you were unconscious, there'd be no question you'd spend the night. Now, I'm once again expected to wrangle your ass for the next twenty-four hours to make sure you don't go into a coma. How is my life not hell?"

"Didn't ask you to 'wrangle my ass' Danny. I can take care of myself!"

"Yeah, you were doing such a good job of it too."

"How was I to know Cujo was going to try to kill me with that cast iron pot?"

"Come on, he's tried to off everyone else. It was just your turn."

"Well, I know he didn't mean it."

"How do you know? He's capable of planning all sorts of mayhem. Have you searched him for explosives?"

"Funny."

"Only to you Cat Lady."

"Where are Chin and Kono?"

"They bailed as soon as they heard you were going to be released but only if you had a babysitter."

"Told you, don't need a . . . "

"Yeah uh huh. Stop whining. Why don't you just do what the other kids do? Hold your breath until you turn blue?"

"Bite me."

"You've got Cujo for that."

…

With Steve down for at least the next day, (longer if he followed doctor's orders but good luck with that), and Danny on SEAL wrangling duty, Chin and Kono were left to do the investigating and answer the Governor's ceaseless phone calls for updates.

"Cuz, haoles sure have no originality with first names." groused Kono as she went through charge card records to match to the four common names on the cups they'd gathered.

Chin just laughed. With a native language consisting of only thirteen letters and words that have various meanings depending on context, he wasn't going to diss anyone else's culture.

"Just be glad we're no longer on dumpster duty Kono." he smiled, smooth face crinkling. "At least we had each other for company during that disgusting task. Danny had to go it on his own."

"Yeah, who knew Danny could come up with so many words to describe the boss?" laughed the slender young woman.

"Almost as many as he uses to describe Cujo."

"Think Danny's learned his lesson?"

"Doubt it. Next time he crosses Steve, we'll see what the boss can come up with."

"He usually seems so amused when Danny goes off on him. It seems to entertain him somehow but I guess this was just one of his buttons. If he can put up with that cat, he can put up with Danny."

"For someone who tolerates bullshit less than anyone I know, he sure seems to have a lot of patience with the two of them. Somehow, having Doris around seems to put him on edge a little more than usual."

"Not too hard to understand, the woman's not exactly the June Cleaver type."

"I wonder what the thing with the leash is about?"

"Danny tell you about that?"

"Yeah, says the boss has 'issues'."

"If Danny doesn't drop it, the issues are gonna be his and he'll be lucky if it's only dumpster diving next time."

"We'll have to rein the Jersey Boy in before he gets himself into trouble.

"Good luck with that."

"I don't just mean with the boss. I mean with that Kenworthy woman. She looks like bad news."

"Danny's a big boy."

"Yeah but Danny's a distracted boy right now. Gabby better get back here soon before he does something stupid."

"Maybe we could just hose him down with cold water?"

"Sounds like a plan."

….

The early morning crew hadn't yet arrived. The cool air held all the possibilities of another beautiful day. With the dim overnight illumination of the interior of the shop; there was just enough to do what needed to be done. Disabling the electronic surveillance system wasn't all that difficult.

Luckily, it was the exact same set-up as last time. There was nothing unexpected in the procedure. What was tricky was finding a window of opportunity. The adjacent business park had people coming and going at all hours. There were a couple of close calls as the stealthy trek across the parking lot from the cover of a tree covered hillside was interrupted by passersbye.

Quickly moving about the room and accomplishing the task; the only thing left to do was wait.

This was going to be the best one yet.

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Your input helps guide the direction of the story. If left to my own devices, it would probably wander around like a guy who refuses to ask for directions.

Wanted this chapter to be longer but had to stop when caffeine induced palpitations kicked in. Did you know there's only so much coffee one can drink before passing out?