A/N: Please read the real author's note at the end of the chapter. It contains important information. Thanks.
He stares at the old house, not understanding quite why he walked out here or why he can't stop looking at it. It's not as fancy or secluded as other houses on this island must be, but something about it seems familiar.
A silver car pulls up, and he's glad that he's hidden. But when the car stops, he feels a pull in his gut, a pull that urges him to leave his cover and approach the occupant. The driver gets out, and his mind floods with…something.
Pineapple hellhole New Jersey haole let me drive
Book 'em -?
By the time he recovers, the short blond man is inside the house. He makes to follow him, but his phone rings first. Like always, he has to wait for the voicemail to register.
You will receive a message soon. You will come to the enclosed address. You will come inside. You will find information on Shelburne. You will not ignore this message. Pop. Click.
And he snaps his phone shut and waits for a text to arrive. There is movement near one upstairs window, and it draws his attention. The blond man looks outside for a moment, and his face is red and swollen. Tearstained. Eventually the man moves away from the window.
He gets a text message as a second car pulls into view. This one is red, and shiny. It also has a pull, but he ignores it and turns away.
He has to go.
Chin Ho wiped a hand over his face as Danny finished explaining what had happened at the house. "And all this because she doesn't trust me."
"Yeah, speaking of not trusting people," Danny said bitterly, "I'm feeling a little left out of the loop here. Is there some reason why you don't trust her?"
"I trust Kono with everything I have," Chin said quickly. "I don't always trust her judgment is all." Danny raised his eyebrows. "Look, it's a long story."
"Then you better have a long explanation, Kelly," Danny replied.
He sighed and nodded. "I know. It goes back maybe…a year and a half ago. There was this prison riot, and some of the inmates actually escaped in the chaos. We rounded up most of them pretty fast, but Sang Min stayed under our radar."
Kono approached him after work months later, telling him that Sang Min was supposedly about to carry out hits on people tied to the Yakuza. Instead of doing something about the rumors, he grilled her for information on her Yakuza informant. How she met them. Who they were. Why they told her this. Instead of laughing off his interrogation as over-protection, she flew into a rage.
Her hair spun as she paced around his desk, ranting about how he didn't trust her. Her face flushed with anger when he told her that she needed to calm down. She cancelled their dinner plans with Malia on the spot and stormed away from him, and he hadn't even bothered to call after her.
"Seems par for the course," Danny said, interrupting his train of thought. Chin shook his head and smiled in spite of himself.
"Not since you left, brah. She and I had dinner together three times a week, twice alone and once with Malia, every single week. Her reaction was drastic." He blew out another sigh. "That night, I decided to take a drive down the coast to clear my mind, and a radio call came in about gunshots on some docks. I wasn't far, so I responded and got there as fast as I could. When I got there, I found Kono and Adam Noshimori laying in a pool of blood. He was practically on top of her."
He could still see his panic-stricken face, reflected in the grisly mirror on the concrete. The blood mixed with Kono's hair, making it spread out angelically. She was so pale. So still. So eerily silent.
He called for some buses and felt for pulses. Adam's was weak but steady, but Kono's wasn't present at all. He stopped the bleeding as best he could and began chest compressions immediately, and after a minute or so she let out a wheezing breath and stirred. Her mouth opened, but whatever she was trying to say was lost in a dribble of yet more blood.
Her heart stopped again before help came. He restarted compressions, and kept going after more cops arrived. After the buses arrived. After they screeched to a halt at Tripler. The whole way into emergency surgery, where he was finally and forcefully relieved of his duties by a nurse.
"She lost a lot of blood, and one of the bullets nearly hit her heart, but the surgeon managed to patch her back up enough that she pulled through. Adam was easier to patch up, or so they thought, but it quickly became apparent that he was comatose. And he has been ever since. For a while, we thought Kono might be as well." A single tear rolled down his cheek as he remember the hours he spent at her bedside, holding her hand in his and praying to whoever would listen that she would survive. "When she finally woke up a week later, her parents were in the room. She only asked them why I hadn't listened to her before passing out again, but I got the message loud and clear from her mother."
Danny had leaned forward a little more with each second of Chin's tale, and the older man vaguely wondered if he would fall off his chair soon. It was easier to focus on that idea than the memory of his favorite cousin's horror upon hearing of Adam's condition. Of her iciness after his apology. Of her months of pain and fury. Of the pain and fury that stayed just under the surface even now. Another tear rolled down his cheek. "So she blames you, then?"
"I think so. She won't even tell me for sure, Danny, but I know she blames me for trying to keep her safe now." He shook his head. "If I try to protect her I'm overbearing, but if I don't I don't care about her. I just…"
Perhaps Danny recognized that his friend was in crisis, because he quickly changed the subject. "Okay, but that doesn't explain why she was with Adam at all. I'm presuming Sang Min shot them, right? That's why you brought him up again?"
"That's correct." Chin sighed again. "Kono and Adam are…were…they dated. I believe they met shortly before the Korea debacle."
"Kono just blithely decided to date one of the Yakuza heads?" Danny laughed hollowly. "Of course she did. Of course she did."
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Chin was attempting to control his emotions, and Danny's expressions were unusually masked. Finally, the New Jersey-native breathed out a sigh of his own. "One more and I'm done for the night."
"Alright."
"Why won't you help us track down Wo Fat?"
This was the easiest question Chin had to answer all night. It was also the hardest. "I don't…"
"C'mon, Chin, just…look, we owe this to Steve. If you're worried about getting Kono hurt, come along for the ride and watch her or something." Danny's eyes were wild behind his stoic mask. "I need help."
"I can't. Nor can Kono."
"Why?!" Danny leaped to his feet, and Chin joined him.
"Because this is a helluva lot bigger than a potential gunshot wound, Danny!" He started to slam his fist into the chair arm, but since he was standing his arm just swung through the air. "I won't have her labeled a traitor."
A/N: Aloha! That opening scene was all sorts of fun to write. Seeing Danny, not remembering who he is...not even knowing why he's at the house. Poor Steve.
I'm sure you're wondering why the title of the story has changed, not to mention the cover. I took some time last night to lay out the plans that have been floating around my head for this story, and it became apparent that there were really three separate phases to the story as it is now. That's right: I'm talking sequels. This one is named for the One Republic song "Come Home", and the sequel is named for Skylar Grey's "Coming Home, Pt. II", which is one of the inspirations for this story in general. I'm going to withhold the name for the third book in the series for now, but it follows the theme.
I'm super excited to release this bit of news. Speaking of exciting news...since I have a hectic schedule ahead of me next week, I'm going to be posting three chapters on Saturday! Woohoo! I don't want to forget to post something next week, and it'll let me have a little more time to write, so it's good all around.
I think that's all I have to say. Mahalo, my friends!