Sharp pain.

Shelburne. Who. How.

I don't know. I don't know.

Shelburne. Head spinning. Heart pounding.

Everything hurt.

Shelburne. Shelburne. Find him.

Find him.

Black.

"Cuz, let me handle this one solo."

Chin cupped a hand over his phone with a concerned look. "You sure, Kono? I can leave as soon as I'm finished here."

She smiled. "It's just a possible B&E at an abandoned house, right? Some kid probably got bored and called it in on his neighbor's house. You're too busy coordinating everyone else, and you haven't stopped moving since we got in here this morning." He started to protest, but she kept talking. "Really, I'll be fine."

Her cousin stared at her for a moment before smiling slightly. "Mahalo." Kono simply winked and strode from the building, grabbing her badge and gun and losing her smile on the way. It was embarrassing, for both her and Chin, to go from being on the governor's personal task force to working run-of-the-mill calls. She suspected it bothered her more than Chin.

She slammed her car door with a little more force than necessary, leaned her head back and exhaled. If Chin hadn't been so swamped, he would have noticed the address before she did. Her shot of getting to McGarrett's house would be gone. It wasn't as if she was doing anything around the precinct, anyhow. Chin hardly let her out of his sight after the shooting.

Chin meant well. She knew he did. He just didn't understand that if Steve was alive, they didn't have time to waste. They needed to find him. She needed to find him.

If her cousin…if her boss couldn't understand that, she would just have to do things her way.

The drive to Steve's house was still familiar, perhaps because she made it once a week like clockwork. Wednesday mornings, behind the house, the surf was tight. That's what Steve had always said. She tended to agree with him on that.

She always arrived early and left early, never stayed longer than thirty minutes. Never saw another car, never saw another person. She liked that.

Her assignment changed this pattern in every way. It was late Monday morning, she wasn't wearing a bikini, and there was another car in the driveway when she pulled up. It was a silver rental Camaro, shiny and bright and just screaming "Danny Williams". Kono's suspicions were confirmed when her Jersey friend pulled back a curtain and waved cheekily at her.

"Danny, what are you doing here?" she asked as she entered the house. The detective was lounging on the couch, his feet on the coffee table. "Someone called in a break-in."

"Uh, yeah, that would be me." Danny grinned. "See, I was hoping to get you and Chin out of the office and out here, so we could come up with some kind of plan."

"Some kind of plan." Kono raised her eyebrows, and her old teammate nodded impatiently.

"Yeah, for when Wo Fat arrives. We probably don't have long; hell, he could be here already. I was thinking, maybe we get in touch with Catherine-"

"Uh, yeah, about that," she interrupted. "Catherine's not available right now, and even if she was…well, let's just say she probably wouldn't be too helpful."

Danny blinked at her. "Why not?"

"It's kind of a long story." Kono sat next to him and sighed. "Suffice it to say she was not pleased with us when I told her about Steve. But moving on," she continued before Danny could comment, "I'm all for planning on Wo Fat's return. We just need to be…subtle about it."

"I am all about subtlety, Kono, that's why I called this in as a B&E." She raised her eyebrows again. "Look, I knew Chin would get the address and recognize it, and so you and/or he was bound to respond, and that wouldn't sketch up Wo Fat's radar, right?"

"When I say 'subtle', Danny, I mean we can't involve HPD. At all."

"Well, yeah, but you and Chin are HPD, so unless the two of you plan on quitting sometime soon it's kind of a given."

"Obviously," she scoffed. "But Chin isn't here. Chin barely heard the call, he had so many others to handle, and if he had heard it I wouldn't be out here. He would be chasing you off the property."

Danny squinted. "Why?"

"Chin's changed, Danny. He's not the same guy you remember. He's more serious, more reserved, so by-the-book that even the idea of an undercover op scares him senseless." She chuckled. "The thought of doing something that isn't ordered by some higher-up sends him into conniptions."

"Are you?"

"Am I—what? What are you asking?"

Danny met her confused gaze with solemn eyes. "Are you the same person I remember?"

She chuckled again and looked away, brushing her hair behind an ear. "Of course, brah. Of course."

He stared at her for a moment, and she was beginning to suspect that he didn't believe her before he smiled and dropped his gaze. "Okay, so Chin's outta the loop. You should probably get back to work, then, and tell him that this was a false alarm. Can you meet me in an hour at the shrimp truck?"

"Sure thing." She stood up and sighed as she took a last look around the house. "Nothing's changed in here, has it?"

"Nope." Danny shook his head, his smile growing pained. "I went upstairs. One of his drawers was still hanging open, probably because he was so rushed with that last case." He wiped a hand over his face, and Kono looked away when she saw the glimmer of tears on his cheeks. She couldn't evade his rapidly loudening shouts, unfortunately. "And then that…that traitor dragged him all the way to North Korea, and then that idiot couldn't shoot the bazooka, and now his drawer is still hanging open, two years later, because he forgot to close it on his way out the door! And he might never be back to close it," he finished in a whisper. "He might never be back."

Kono didn't know what to say. She wasn't sure she was supposed to say anything, and she knew she probably couldn't, even if she did know what to say and how. Her eyes, too, were filled with tears by the end of Danny's outburst. Her throat felt like someone had stuffed it with paper.

She bent to kiss the top of his head before walking out. Only her will and years of practice kept her from collapsing with sobs before reaching her car.

And when the sobs hit, they hit hard.

A/N: I am utterly incapable of expressing how much I appreciate the voluminous amount of support I've received for this story since posting it last week. To those of you who have followed or favorited it, know that I am incredibly grateful even if I haven't written you to tell you. Response like this makes writing even more of a joy than it already is.

Moving on from the sappy acceptance-speech style, I want to give you guys an idea of how updates will happen. I have four unposted chapters (not counting the epilogue) saved to my hard drive currently, and I'd like to keep it that way until I'm done with the story. When I get time to write around my other obligations, I will. I tentatively expect to update this story twice a week since the chapters are so brief, but we'll see what happens.

That's about it. Again, thanks for the support. You are all amazing.