A/N: Hello All! Thank you so much for being patient with me. TV is so distracting now that there are new episodes of all my favourite shows! Heehee.

Anyway, here is the second last chapter of this story. This chapter is full of some rather disturbing speeches – you've been warned. The next chapter will be the last and I'm pretty happy with how this whole ordeal turned out.

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. You've all been wonderful. Stay turned for the conclusion!

Chapter 15: Life Is A Highway

"Danny you're bleeding all over the car." Steve stated as he slammed on the brakes.

"Keep driving, or so help me God, I will shoot you too!" Danny yelled. "I'm fine. It's not that bad, but this situation could get so much worse!"

"But you're bleeding and usually that's a big deal for you!"

"And this is why I should be driving, but in my shot and wounded state I figured it would be best to have Crazy Driver McGarrett take the wheel." Danny grumbled and ranted. "And now you want to stop in mid car chase? What the hell is the matter with you?" Danny asked angrily but waved off Steve's response to radio for back up.

"This is Detective Williams. Five-O is in pursuit of a murder suspect. He is Armed and Dangerous. Requesting Immediate Back Up!"

The radio crackled, the response came in the form of a call out by switchboard with an all call for available units and then Danny opened the line again.

"Doctor Peter Goldstein has taken Detective Austen as a hostage. The suspect is driving a red Mustang convertible and heading south on King Street."

"Can I carry on with my rant about you bleeding all over the Camaro now?" Steve asked as Danny sat holding his side and listening to the relay of the message over the radio.

"No, you do not get to rant about me being shot in my own car. Not until we end this chase."

"Then I can take you to the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Well, we'd better get this over with." Steve stated. "Call Duke, have him meet us up the highway with a road block."

"You can't guarantee that he'll take her to the highway."

"I don't think he's the one driving!" Steve stated and finally got close enough to the fleeing suspect to see that he was correct.

5-0

"Drive," Goldstein ordered with his weapon pressed firmly against the side of Violet's head.

The mad man had opened fire and snatched up his last victim from right under Five-Os nose and in his haste he'd shoved Violet into the car before him and ordered her to get the hell out of Dodge.

"Where am I going?" Violet asked cooperatively as she exited onto King Street and cringed as the man felt her up, took her weapon, but also fastened her seatbelt - she was now really stuck in the vehicle.

"Drive until I tell you to stop, and drive fast." Goldstein ordered as he anxiously kept checking behind and in front of them. "Those fools from Five-O are onto us. You're a cop, you know how to drive, so drive like you mean it and lose them!" he yelled.

"And what if I don't?" Violet asked defiantly. "You were the maniac who abducted me right in front of a police station."

"Then I'll shoot you right now."

Violet leaned heavily onto the accelerator knowing that she would likely never make it out of the car alive.

"If Five-O is after us, they've already radioed for back-up. Every cop on this island knows that you have a cop in this car. Before you know it, there will be more cops everywhere. They know who you are and how many girls you've already killed. They found them in the rose beds and they've now linked you to more murders on the mainland." Violet explained as she leaned hard to the right - running a red light and nearly coming into collision with another vehicle.

"I don't murder those girls. I gave them a new life in a way that they might live in beauty forever." Goldstein corrected angrily as he grabbed onto the car's door to steady himself as Violet drove - the gun ever pressed against her head.

"I'll do the same with you because you are like the others. You have all the qualities to be as beautiful and an ever lasting gem. I will finish what I started with Lydia as well, as soon as I find her again."

"None of us have that ability anymore because the police have found the others and have started digging them up. They are killing the roses and stopping the process, and relocating the bodies back to the families you took them from." Violet played along hoping it would cause him to let his guard down long enough for her to make and evasive maneuver.

"No, no, no, they must be left alone. They must have the opportunity to let the earth work her magic. The earth is what is calling you, Violet. Don't you hear it? You have to be left to the earth because you are special and beautiful in its eyes." Goldstein stated manically. "They must be left to the habits of the flowers and the carbon. One day they will be like the diamonds. The earth will change them. I will take you away from this place and give you back to the earth where the police will not find you. You will be the next. You are being called. It will all be as it should be."

"No it won't because it's over. The police have found them." Violet stated forcefully as she made another turn but Steve and Danny were right on their tail now.

"This is all your fault," Goldstein growled. "I knew you were looking, trying to find the enlightenment that the earth was calling you for, but you're flawed and I didn't want to take you - knowing what you were - but now you are ruining everything. I have to teach you a lesson. It's my job. I'm a teacher. You have to learn!"

"I can't learn if I'm dead."

"The lesson is to be learned in the process of dying - to find enlightenment and eternity in the transformation that is to occur." Goldstein stated as two more police cruisers appeared behind Steve and Danny with their lights and sirens wailing.

"Drive Fasters!" Goldstein ordered as he became more frantic.

"I can't," Violet protested, "or do you want us both dead?"

"Get to the highway and get us out of here!" Goldstein yelled as he grabbed the steering wheel and pulled it hard to the right to swerve into traffic again and put other vehicles between them and Five-O.

5-0

"The road block is set. Let's just hope she's smart enough to get us there." Danny stated as he ended another call and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"I should be taking you to the hospital." Steve grumbled but kept up the case.

"No, you didn't take me the last time I got shot. This isn't that bad and until we know that Violet is safe you will keep driving like a maniac!" Danny ordered.

Steve hammered down on the accelerator again and closed the gab between the red convertible and the silver Camaro.

"Do you think you could shoot him?" Steve asked as he took another sharp right turn and Danny had to hold on for dear life.

"Not at this speed, besides, if I miss he'll kill Violet and that's not the outcome we're going for here."

"He's kept her alive this long. I don't think he'll shoot her.

"He still thinks they can get away."

"She's exiting," Steve stated and followed onto the highway off ramp.

5-0

"We've made it." Goldstein stated as they reached the highway. "Now pedal down and lose those two!"

Violet did as she was told. She pushed the little sports car to the absolute max and as the Camaro fell back and the traffic thinned out she knew what was coming.

"I told you. You'll be the next. You'll blossom like the rest of them." Goldstein stated triumphantly but never removed the weapon from the side of Violet's head. "I have so much to teach you."

"What if I don't want to learn?" Violet asked defiantly.

"You have no choice. It has begun." Goldstein replied and relaxed slightly.

"What if I fight you?"

"Like you just did?" Goldstein asked with a laugh. "They never fight once it has begun."

"Once you've drugged them and tied them up, but I'm not going to let you do that to me." Violet stated trying to keep Goldstein's attention on herself and not on the fact that all of the traffic on the highway had thinned out.

The sirens had died away as well, but the flashing lights of the pursuing Camaro still flashed brightly in the rearview mirror, and up the road - seen only briefly as they rounded a bend on the upward slop - was the road block and more awaiting police officers.

"What are you going to do to stop me?" Goldstein asked and his tone was much more threatening now. "It's just you and me now, and I have your gun."

"I'm trained in hand to hand combat."

"I have a tranquilizer right here." Goldstein stated and pulled a syringe of dull yellow liquid out of the glove compartment. "As soon as this car stops you'll get this and then you'll have no more fight left in you."

"But until I lose the cops you can't drug me and I have control of this vehicle. What if I swerve?" Violet asked and dangerously swerved the vehicle toward the guard rail and the cliff on the passenger side of the car.

The sudden movement was enough to throw Goldstein off balance and the syringe fell out of his hand and landed on the floor.

"You'll kill us both!" Goldstein yelled - never taking the gun away from Violet's head as he reached down and grabbed the needle once more.

"I'd rather kill us both than let you get away with killing anyone else." Violet stated defiantly as the car flew over the spike strip and Goldstein jumped at the sound of the tires popping.