"Hey, Cuz, are you here?"
Wiping her hands against her jeans in an attempt to remove some of the sticky, wet flour that coated them, Kono turned towards the Kitchen door and called out, "I'm in the kitchen."
Wandering through the neat living room, Chin paused as he reached the kitchen door, staring in a mixture of shock and surprise at his cousin. The normally, spotlessly clean kitchen, Kono, Kono's clothes, and her hair were covered in a light coating of what he could only assume was some sort of flour. The benchtops and chopping board were littered with an array of partially chopped onions, peppers, herbs, and ripe tomatoes, which surrounded an open cookbook that was resting in the middle of the bench.
Looking past Kono to the pot that rested on the stove, he watched, enthralled, for a second at the small red droplets of the red simmering sauce shot out like small droplets of red lava from a volcano that was threatening to erupt and landed on what was once a clean white stove top. Looking back at Kono, he grinned, "Cooking something?"
Wiping a strand of sweat soaked hair away from her face with the back of her hand, Kono nodded as she turned back towards the stove to stir the pot of sauce as she answered her cousin's question over her shoulder, "Steve told me that the doctors told Danny that he can start eating some solid food today-"
"I don't think that whatever you are cooking is quite what the doctors-" Chin began.
"I know!" Kono nodded as she picked up a spoon and dipped it into the sauce before lifting the red goo up and delicately tasting it. Dropping the spoon to join the rest of the many spoons, knives, pots and pans in the overflowing sing. Kono grabbed the saltshaker and added some salt into the pot as she continued, "But I was thinking, Chin, Danny isn't going to be able to do much cooking for himself, Charlie or Grace after he is released from the hospitals or not for a few days anyway." She began, turning back to Chin as she continued, "And I'm sure he's not going to want to live on take-away and pizza-"
"So, you thought that-" Chin frowned as he glanced towards the simmering pot.
Kono nodded, her proud smile lighting up her face as she glanced over her shoulder at her cousin and announced, "After the way that we messed up, the least I could do was cook and freeze Danny some of his favorite Italian meals, so he doesn't have to do any cooking after he's released from the hospital." The smile slipped from her lips as she shrugged and sighed, "I know it's not much of an apology, but I guess at least it's a start."
Smiling Chin stepped across and pulled his cousin into a hug as he reassured her, "I'm sure Danny's going to appreciate it."
Nodding, Kono swallowed the lump in her throat as she pulled back a little and looked at Chin, unable to stop her lip from trembling as she whispered, "You don't think he's serious about going back to the mainland, do you?"
Taking a deep breath, Chin shrugged as he murmured, "I don't know, we really hurt him with our behavior, but I hope not."
H50 H50 H50
Tapping his pen against his ornate Koa desk, the Governor's thoughts drifted to Danny Williams and the private conversation he had had with the Five 0 detective in the ICU while McGarrett had been taken to physio. Williams had not only shocked but surprised him, when the Five 0 detective asked if he could turn down the gold Medal of Valor, insisting that landing the plane had not been an act of heroism but the desperate act of a terrified man who didn't want either McGarrett or himself to die in an aircraft crash, not if he could do something, …anything, even trying to land the plane to stop that from happening. As for his selfless act of donating half his liver to save McGarrett's life, Williams had merely shrugged and insisted that anyone would do the same thing to save the life of a friend.
Williams had reassured him that he had decided to remain in Hawaii and retain his position with Five 0, promising to withdrawal his application to return to Newark P.D. A small smile tugged at his lips as he remembered Williams's still weak, soft plea that he ignore Steve's resignation letter, to which he had readily agreed. He decided not to tell Danny that he had already decided to ignore it if either man had changed their minds and that the letter was already filed where it belonged in the bin.
Looking up at his closed office door, a chuckle escaped his lips. Williams had asked that if he wanted to reward him for his bravery, rather than a medal there was just one small request from him that Williams wanted to ask him to do. The chuckle increased to full belly laugh as he remembered with delight the small request that Williams had asked him to agree to. It was a request that he was definitely looking forward to granting.