Chapter 18: Ali Gains Confidence

Ali felt as if every single ounce of energy had left her as she tried to recall what happened. She had been at the hospital with Danny, they were laughing about something and then he left. What happened after that? Someone came into her room, but she hadn't been nervous so they must have been someone she knew… had it been Danny? No, it was a woman, it had been a friend, her best friend, Odette. Ali remembered becoming defensive for some reason.

"Wake up," she heard a voice that would haunt her to the day she died; it was Jacques Francois.

Ali opened her eyes and only to meet the bloodshot gaze of Francois.

Stay in control, she breathed. He'll only hurt you more if he knows you're scared. Do what Max taught you: Act like you don't care whether you live or die.

"Don't tell me I've got to pretend to be afraid of you, again," she cheekily replied as he whipped his hand across her face.

She felt the sting on her cheek even when Francois looped his arms beneath her armpits and made her sit up against a wall. Her hands were bound with duct tape along with her feet. If she hadn't felt so woozy she would've been able to break free.

"You always had something to say," he remarked. "Never at the right moment."

"Papa!" a girlish voice called from upstairs.

That sounds like….No, Ali recognized Odette's voice as immediately felt her heart drop to her stomach, which in turn dropped to her knees.

She remembered why she became defensive in the hospital room. Odette came in by herself, at first. She wore green scrubs and explained to Ali that she had to sneak in. Ali recalled that there was something off about her friend, she had dark circles beneath her eyes. It made the blonde spy wonder why someone who was on vacation in Hawaii was exhausted. Ali knew Odette was helping the task force (of course, she was only "helping"), but for a spy, finding some files was as simple as calling Langley… Ali's point was that Odette shouldn't have been exhausted from making a few phone calls. That was when Francois entered with a syringe full of Rohypnol, also known as roofies. Ali began fighting against them, using anything she could find in the room to defend herself and hoping that Danny would be back at any second. She was too tired from the anesthetics that the hospital gave her and she made mistakes. She hit them in the wrong places, allowed them to cut her with her own scalpel and finally, she allowed roofies to be injected into her system.

"I shouldn't be surprised, you never were honest," Ali remarked, feeling her blood boiling within her.

"You aren't crying yet," Odette venomously replied as she grabbed Ali's arm. "You were never brave."

Ali didn't know how to feel. Knowing that the person she had been closest to had been planning on killing her made her feel so worthless and friendless. She slowly began to realize that her situation mirrored the twisted nightmare she had.

No, Ali told herself. Do not feel sorry for yourself right now. You're going to get out of this and you're going to go to Kono's graduation party with Steve.

Ali felt a prick in her arm and saw that Odette was putting more Rohypnol into her bloodstream. At most she had thirty minutes before the drugs kicked in; thirty minutes to think. She closed her eyes …

"Point your toes," Valentina, her babysitter and teacher, instructed.

Ali obeyed and waited for the next set of instructions.

"Arms forward and spin please," Valentina said.

Ali used her right foot to push her off the ground which allowed her to spin around on her left foot; she felt completely comfortable. This was her world. Dancing in Valentina's basement that had been remodeled to be a small studio was what Ali loved. Even though her toes felt as if they would fall off and the muscles in her legs screamed for a break, she didn't want to stop. Ali wanted to learn the routine she was being taught.

"Pryviet!" Ali heard her brothers, Josef and Max, called in Russian from upstairs.

"Your brothers are here," Valentina told her in her heavy accent. "You can't give up, okay? Anything you do, you have to try."

"Spazeba," Ali thanked her mentor as she ran upstairs to hug her brothers….

Ali smiled as she thought of her dance lessons. They had come to an end when she moved to Hawaii, but she always wrote to the older woman named Valentina. The last time she saw her was Josef's wedding. The wedding which Ali was so excited to attend…

Ali felt the Hawaiian sun on her back as she looked at her brother and her new sister-in-law. They stood beneath an archway covered in beautiful hibiscus flowers. She couldn't believe that Josef was finally getting married. Her new sister wore a beautiful gown that wasn't perfectly white. Crème is what Leah had called it. Her brother looked put together in his tuxedo and his perfect posture. Ali smiled from her spot beside the other five bridesmaids. She glanced ahead of her and saw her other brother, Max, and his best friend, Steve; they were the best men or groomsmen or whatever the male version of bridesmaids were called. Ali looked back at Josef and thought back to when he first met Leah. They were both studying at the University of Hawaii. Leah was studying to be a bioengineer while Josef was in chemical engineering. At first Leah wanted nothing to do with Josef. She told Max, who was also in his freshman year of college, that Josef wasn't her type. However, Josef was persistent. Ali remembered how convinced he was that Leah really did like him while everybody else told him to give up. He never listened to anybody and now Ali was calling Leah her sister.

Never quitting, Ali thought. The wonders it worked.

Ali wrinkled her nose as an awful odor made its way to her nose. She forced herself to open her eyes and looked around. She wanted to hit herself for not doing that when Francois woke her up. She should have scanned the perimeter to see if she had a chance of getting out. When she saw that there was a set of stairs, she brought her hands up to her mouth and began to bite the duct tape. She knew if she bit all of the layers of tape at once she wouldn't even create a hole with her teeth. She would go layer by layer until she freed her arms and then she would unwrap her feet.

As she bit through the last layer of the tape, the odor was beginning to bother Ali... a lot. There was nothing in the room that could have caused the obvious stench of death that was hanging around. Ali looked down and saw that the floor of the basement was made of dirt. The house must have been under development if the basement didn't have a cemented floor yet. What bothered Ali was there was an uneven spot not too far from her, as if someone had dug the ground and buried something… or someone.

She used whatever energy she had to scoot over to the mound of dirt. With her newly freed hands she began shifting the dirt. She kept shoving the ground, lowering the small mound that had been there before. She kept becoming more exhausted because of the drugs, but she didn't stop. Within a few minutes Ali could see something pale poking out from the ground and it only urged her to find out what it was. After she exerted more effort she discovered a human hand with a small tattoo of a cross. She thought back to her meeting with David Vlotkovsky; he had a similar tattoo. She remembered Steve assuming that Vlotkovsky had been fired. Well he had been right, but being fired by her captors meant being killed.

"Think," she instructed herself as she heard Odette's heels tap each step on her way down.

"Should've known you weren't going to stick to your own business," Odette hissed as bent down beside Ali and used a bowie knife to cut through the duct tape on her feet.

I can't grab the knife now, she'll alert Francois by screaming, Ali considered. I have to surprise her, do something she won't expect me to do.

Odette then threw a set of clothes beside Ali, "Get dressed. We're leaving."

Ali hadn't realized that she was only wearing her undergarments and an oversized t-shirt. What Odette had given Ali didn't seem any more extravagant, but at least she had been given jeans to cover her legs.

"How are you going to get a drugged girl past customs?" Ali asked out of curiosity, knowing Odette would answer because she had no reason to believe Ali had a chance to escape.

"It's a plane flying in dark," Odette replied. "You're dead, Sarna. Anyway you look at it."

That was when Ali elbowed Odette in the ribs causing the brunette to fall back. Ali hadn't elbowed her hard enough, though, because she was on her feet and standing in a crouched position with her knife in one hand, ready to fight.

"Your boyfriend isn't looking for you," Odette attacked, but Ali could tell it was only to discourage her. "Doesn't that make you sad?"

"A little," Ali sneered. "But killing you would make it better!"

Ali grabbed the hand with the knife in it; she had to control it in order to ensure that she wouldn't be stabbed. She then instinctively shoved Odette up against the wall using her own free hand and back. The entire time, Odette was still trying to stab Ali, but not succeeding. That was one of the things Ali was grateful for. When Odette had things handed to her because of her beauty, Ali trained long hours and earned her position. Thanks to that, Ali was a much better fighter than Odette, even if she was slowly blacking out.

"Next time you should kidnap somebody who doesn't know how to fight," Ali hissed as she disarmed Odette, then elbowed her in the neck to crush the hyoid bone which would bring a lot of pain and cause the temporary inability to speak.

Ali grabbed the knife from the basement floor as she leaned against a wall. She was definitely beginning to feel the effects of the Rohypnol. Her vision was becoming blurry, but she had to keep going. There was no way she was giving up on her own life. She had things to go home to now- Her family, the task force, Steve McGarrett- and she was going to find out what being happy truly meant.

"I swear to God when I come around I'm kicking your ass," Ali breathily said as she began to drag herself up the stairs.

The door at the top creaked open and she could only see the outline of Francois. Ali wasn't one to swear, but a string of the worst curse words ran through her mind as he made his way down.

"Bad timing," he grunted when his feet were on the same step which Ali was resting her head on.

She was huffing and puffing, her chest heaved up and down, trying to fight the effects of the drugs. She knew she wouldn't escape. She crossed that off, but she wouldn't allow anyone to think she was weak. She brought up her hand with the knife and stabbed Francois's foot. Jacques Francois's scream was the last thing Ali heard before she blacked out.

H5-0

Headquarters

The entire team was sitting at the conference table waiting for people Declan claimed could help and the governor of Hawaii. Steve never chewed on a pencil or tapped his fingers against a desk when he was anxious, but he was tempted to fall into those habits. The longer he waited, the longer he didn't know if Ali was safe. Declan claimed that Odette and Francois already had Ali on a plane to Estonia, but in order to have any power to save her from a different country Steve needed backing from the governor and extra man power. His team had already done everything to prepare for the rescue mission, whether it was legal or not. Kono researched the city Declan told them about, Chin gathered the tech equipment while Danny and Steve assembled weaponry.

"What do you know about the cult," Steve finally cut through the silence.

"I already told you-"

"It isn't enough," Danny backed Steve. "Who's paying Francois? What are the crazies like? What do we need to know before we get there, you schmuck?"

Steve heard the glass doors open and saw Ali's friend, Derek, walking in along with three other people behind him. There was a skinny woman with brown hair in heels, a man wearing army cargo pants (clearly ready for action) and a bespectacled man with a plaid shirt and light blonde hair. He stood to quickly greet them so that they could start their mission and his team followed.

"Commander," Derek greeted in a more serious tone than their previous meeting. "We know the situation, I've gathered a team. This is Anna, Rick and Demetrio."

"Save the pleasantries for the plane ride," Anna huffed. "It's a pleasure, but we have two agents missing; one rogue and one in danger. I think we should focus on that."

"Not without my backing," Governor Jameson made herself known as she walked in, her strides showing she was in command.

"Governor, one of our own has been abducted," Steve lay out. "She's in Estonia and we need to find her."

"I am not the president. I cannot authorize something like that," Governor Jameson pointed out as the man in army cargo pants stepped up.

"Governor, I'm Sergeant First Class Rick James. We've authorization from everybody who needs to give it-"

"Which would be who?" Jameson demanded.

"Our guys in Langley," the last man, Demetrio, said. "Estonian officials."

Steve liked the way his new associates operated. They didn't take Ali's abduction lightly and Derek came prepared with people who Steve had a hunch knew what they were doing. He was still confident in his team. Under his guidance he was sure that they would be like sailors … or soldiers.

"Governor," Kono interjected. "Ali is very special to not only Steve, but to our team. She's ohana and you, being the governor of Hawaii, should know that we don't take our ohana for granted."

"This team needing my permission is all that's stopping you?" the governor asked.

Steve wanted her to just allow them to leave already. He hated how long it was taking her to say yes.

"Yes," Derek answered. "With all due respect, could you just say yes already?"

"Go," she agreed throwing her hands up in the air.

"Danny, grab the bags we packed. Kono make sure you've got everything memorized about that place and Chin, familiarize our new friends with our tech," Steve drilled as everybody ran in different directions. "Declan, any movement until we board that plane and I'll shoot you."

"You keep them on a tight leash," Anna commented.

"Situations like this call for it," Steve replied.

"That ain't a bad thing, Anna. If you were kept on a leash you wouldn't have those spikes on your feet," the sergeant remarked turning towards Steve as Anna rolled her eyes. "Rick James. We heard about you, McGarrett, all the way in Iraq."

"Maybe when this is over we can grab a beer," Steve suggested, shaking Rick's hand as Danny handed him one of the enormous bags of guns they packed.

"Yeah, just make sure you've got your wallet, Sergeant. Super SEAL has this thing where he forgets to bring his," Danny said as everybody began to move out.

"Hey," Derek stopped Steve once they had everybody out of the office. "Listen, Declan's a good guy, he shouldn't be going into the field with us though."

"What do you suggest?"

"He should stay behind with Demetrio on the plane. He's better for that."

"Alright," Steve agreed. "He's your man anyhow."

"And McGarrett, my people aren't like Odette," Derek assured. "I've made sure of it."

Steve nodded, he knew that Derek wouldn't have brought someone on for this if he didn't think they were cut out for it. He knew that Derek would lay down his life for Ali just as soon as Steve would.

Here's chapter Eighteen! Probably one of the more exciting ones, at least for me anyway. I just want everybody to know that Anna is based on Gabrielle Anwar and Sergeant James is based on Jeremy Renner (because I love him!). Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter!