CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Title: "Salvation: Forever and Always: Elusive Dreams – PART III"
Author: Michelle Heath
Rating: MA for adult situations and language
Summary: Story #9 in the Salvation series. The bonds of family bring the Five-0 ohana even closer.
Disclaimer: I so do not own Hawaii Five-0; unfortunately! All original characters are the property of the author!
Date Written: November 17, 2012
(Libby and Mike have just gone upstairs to bed when Libby's cellular phone rings and Steve's name and number pop up on her caller i.d. Glancing at Mike with a slight frown on her face, Libby answers the call.)
"Steve? Is everything all right?"
"Sam did exactly what you said she would, Libby. She told me she didn't need to talk to Capt. Stewart or anyone else about her parent's deaths."
"What happened, Son?"
"She waited until Emily went to sleep and then she asked me what you and Mike and I were talking about out in the driveway this morning. She didn't need to ask me, though, 'cause she already knew; said we were talking about her behind her back. Then she said she'd had her little 'meltdown' and was over it, and everything was fine, she was fine. I told her she wasn't fine and then I asked her to call Capt. Stewart first thing Monday morning; if not for herself or me, for Emily."
"What did Sam say, dear?"
"She just looked at me for a minute, mumbled something about needing to work on some reports, took her laptop, and went downstairs. The woman standing in our bedroom a little while ago was not my wife or your daughter, Libby. I'm beginning to understand just how upset you were this morning because, honestly? . . . I'm pretty upset myself at the moment."
"I'm sure she's angry that we were talking about her out in the driveway this morning; we were doing exactly what she accused her us of, Steve. Maybe once she's gotten over her initial anger and had a chance to sleep on it, she'll realize that we're only concerned because we love her. Sam's always been a reasonable person; I'm sure she'll be more agreeable in the morning."
"I hope so, Libby, because I don't know who Sam is right now and that scares the Hell out of me."
(Sam, furious with her husband and parents, is sitting at the kitchen table attempting to review the reports Lt. Cmdr. Monroe has filed for the past couple of days but she is so upset that she's read the same sentence three tines and still doesn't know what it says. After Caroline and Danny and Grace left, Sam wasn't as distracted as she had been earlier and, after thinking about it for a little while, she finally figured out what Steve, Libby, and Mike were doing out in the driveway after the ladies got back from the mall. The conversation she had with her mother ran through her head and she had no trouble putting two and two together. Stress, that's what caused her to have the nightmare and get sick, and now her husband and her parents are trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Realizing that she's not going to get any work done tonight, Sam shuts down her laptop and heads upstairs. Just as she steps into their bedroom, her cellular phone rings and she quickly snags it from her bedside table before it wakes Emily. Steve walks into the bedroom from their bathroom as Sam answers the phone but he doesn't miss the glint of anger in her eyes.)
"Cmdr. McGarrett . . . Fatalities? . . . Thank you, Lieutenant; I'll be there in twenty. . . . I have to go, Steve. An F/16 coming in from San Diego, N.A.S. declared an in-air emergency about five minutes out of Pearl and then crashed hitting a fuel truck in the process. The pilot's dead and the RIO's in critical condition, there were injuries to some of our personnel on the ground, and all Hell's broken loose at the base. I don't know how long I'm going to be gone."
"Go. Just call me when you can, Beautiful."
(After getting dressed, Sam pauses only long enough to step into the nursery and kiss her sleeping baby and then kisses her husband quickly before heading downstairs and out the door. Knowing that the situation at the base is going to take a while to deal with, Steve climbs into bed and turns off the lamp on his bedside table but sleep eludes him and he lies there with his hands behind his head as he replays what Libby told him earlier in the day as well as his conversation with Sam. Something is definitely not right with Sam and it's scaring him. There's not a lot he can do about it, however, if Sam isn't willing to talk with a therapist and it looks like that's not going to happen. Twenty minutes later, Steve is still wide awake so he snags Sam's laptop from their dresser, heads into Emily's room and sits down in the rocker, boots up the computer and logs onto the internet. Five minutes later, he's reading the obituaries for Anne and Jonathan Murdock and a couple of minutes later, he's logged onto the Five-0 secure server and is contacting the Sheriff's Department who worked the accident requesting they email him the case file. Sam's never gone into any detail about what happened to her parents, but, one way or the other, Steve is about to become intimately acquainted with every, single detail of the official reports. He also uses his naval security clearance to access the records department at the naval hospital in Bethesda, Md. and requests copies of the autopsy reports on both of Sam's parents. He then logs onto the website for Arlington National Cemetery and uses the site's search engine to locate the grave sites for the Murdocks and sends the information to the printer in his and Sam's bedroom. Emily begins to whimper in her sleep and Steve quickly sets Sam's laptop on the chest of drawers and checks on the baby. Realizing that Emily needs her diaper changed, Steve quickly scoops his daughter from her bed and takes care of getting her clean and dry in a matter of minutes. Once Emily is back in her baby bed and sleeping peacefully once again, Steve crawls back into the bed he shares with Sam and tries to think of the best way to get her to talk Capt. Stewart as soon as possible. It is quite some time before Steve falls asleep.)