Chapter 6
"Nahele?"
"Steve, Steve I need help!"
Nahele ran in with a boy in his arms. "He took something, I don't know what."
Nahele put the boy on Steve's couch. The boy, he was twelve or thirteen, was pale and there was sweat on his forehead. While Danny called Noelani for help, Steve searched the boy's pockets. From his right trouser pocket Steve pulled a familiar bag with a rainbow on it. That stuff again.
Noelani quickly gave the boy an antidote for an overdose. Shortly thereafter, unfortunately, she could only determine the death of the boy. Shocked, Noelani, Danny and Steve looked at the half child while Nahele sat next to the boy crying. Steve pulled Nahele up and led him out of the room.
"Calm down Nahele, you did everything right when you brought him to us. Where do you know him from?"
Nahele sniffled. "I…. I earn some extra money at Mamo's surf school. For a few days we have had a school group from the mainland who want to learn to surf and Mamo entrusted them to me. And now? Now one of them is dead." Nahele began to cry again.
"Nahele, it's not your fault. Whoever gave that stuff to the boy is to blame, whatever it was."
Steve looked sadly at the bag that he had meanwhile placed in an evidence bag. The boy was now the sixth or seventh fatality and they still didn't know where the deadly crystal meth came from. And it was always young teenagers who had just outgrown childhood. Concerned, Steve took Nahele home and informed Mamo. He came over immediately and took care of Nahele. The young man was still exhausted and berated himself for not paying enough attention. However, Mamo was able to calm him down a bit, because Nahele was the group's surfing instructor, but not the supervisor. The two teachers in the group were ultimately responsible for their students. And they hadn't been there when the boy collapsed.
Noelani shipped the boy to the medical examiner's office while Danny took the bag to the lab. When Steve came back to HQ, Danny was already running towards him.
"Steve, there was a fingerprint on the bag, we have an address."
Immediately Steve turned on his heel and they drove to the given address. The young guy they found there was just a little fish who actually bought the stuff for himself. At least he could give them another name. They finally had a lead on where the stuff came from.
Surprised, the pilot opened the door. Basically, he had no idea what kind of stuff he was actually transporting. With what he diverted on the flight, he only earned something extra. On a whim, Steve took the pilot's place by physically convincing him that he had to play the game.
A day later, the long-awaited call came that a transport was due, and moments later Danny and Steve were on a transport flight with one of the meth dealers and a shipment of crystal meth. At the same time Catherine entered the HQ and met Kono there.
"Hey Catherine, are you feeling better?"
Catherine looked at Kono in confusion. So Steve probably didn't tell the others about their fight. "Yes, …. thank you, I am fine."
Angered again at Steve for making things worse with his secrecy, she went to his office to confront him. But he wasn't there at all. Disappointed, she sat down at his desk. Her anger was gone again, she actually missed him a lot, only her pride had kept her from having a clarifying conversation with him, because she still wasn't aware of any guilt. Catherine pulled her laptop out of her bag and started to work, but as she moved the papers on the desk a little, she noticed a brown envelope with Steve's name on it, lying among the other papers. She picked it up and froze when she saw what it contained. Now she realized what had upset Steve so much. "Oh Steve."
"Everything OK?"
Kono stood in the doorway and watched her carefully as she had seen Catherine's expression.
"Yes, I..." Catherine sighed, "I wasn't sick at all. Steve and I had a big argument. He accused me of cheating on him with Billy. And I didn't understand at all how he got the idea that Billy and I, well, that we could have something together."
Catherine handed the photo to Kono. "But now I see how he came up with that."
"Wow, I would be angry too. But have you...?
Catherine looked at her indignantly. "No, of course not. This is a picture from when Billy and I were still together. We ate in a completely different restaurant the day before yesterday", she looked at Kono openly, "Kono, believe me, I love Steve with all my heart. And Billy is just a friend."
At that moment, Kono's cell phone rang. She took the call and suddenly her face became terribly serious. "What? Oh, my God!"
When she hung up, Chin was just poking his head through the door. When he saw the serious faces of the two women, he knew immediately that something had happened.
"What's up?"
"That was Honolulu ATC. The transport plane with Steve and Danny on board was shot at. Steve's been shot."
"Shot? Is he ok?"
"He's not responding."
"And who's flying the plane?"
Steve flew the Cessna like he'd never done anything else. They chatted about different things and if Steve had ever used autopilot to take a nap. Suddenly a helicopter appeared. The dealer immediately suspected the DEA and tagged the fabric with a GPS transmitter. Then suddenly the back door of the helicopter opened and a guy shot the plane with a machine gun, then he turned away. When Danny lifted his head again, he saw that Steve was still hunched over in the pilot's seat.
"Steve, Steve!" Danny carefully raised his friend up again. Steve had taken multiple hits and was ashen in the face, groaning in pain and clutching his upper stomach.
"Danny, I'm gonna die."
"No, you will not."
Danny took the wheel and picked up the radio.
"May day! mayday! I'm in a Cessna on my way to Oahu and I have a serious, very serious problem. I repeat. Mayday! Mayday! Our pilot has been shot! We request immediate assistance!"
"This is Honolulu International control, what happened?"
Danny briefly considered what to say, but Steve's life came first and he didn't care about his cover now.
"This is Detective Danny Williams of the Five-0 Task Force. I need help landing this plane."
The dealer, who was sitting behind Danny, immediately drew his gun and pointed it at Danny.
"You damn cop!"
Danny reacted quickly and also drew his gun, causing him to let go of the controls and causing the plane to stagger. "Hey, put your gun down right now!"
"Take yours down!"
"Put down the gun, I won't say it again, okay?!"
"Never!"
Then Steve intervened in a weak voice. "Shoot him, Danny. Shoot him."
"Calm down, Steve. Everything will be fine."
"Please switch to channel 17, you will get help.", came through the radio.
"Don't answer, Detective!"
"If I don't answer, we all die. This plane will crash if we shoot each other! You understand that?"
Something came over the radio again. "Can you hear me? Do you copy?"
Panicked, Danny looked over at Steve, who's eyes were slowly drooping. "Stay awake, Steve. Steve!"
"We should land, Danny. We should land.", came softly in response.
Danny was overwhelmed and needed to somehow resolve the situation, so he put his gun away and put his hands back on the wheel.
"Okay, you know what? You have won. Go ahead, shoot me, but then who's flying the plane?"
"You can not fly either!"
"That's true, but the people on the other end can help. But feel free to shoot me and try your luck! Go ahead! Look, I promise you, when I land this plane safely, you and I pick up right where we left off, okay?. All right?!"
"Fine!"
"Good."
Then Danny switched to channel 17 as instructed and looked over at Steve again, who had now closed his eyes.
"I'm gonna die, Danny."
"No, you will not. Just hang in there. You're gonna be all right."
Then Danny picked up the radio again. "I repeat: This is Detective Danny Williams. I'm in a Cessna. We're flying toward Oahu. Our pilot, my colleague, has been shot, he has multiple gunshot wounds. I'm going to need an ambulance the moment I get this thing landed, which I have no clue how to do! Over!"
"Copy that, detective. Your approach is good, you just need to slow down."
"Okay, slow down, how do I do that?"
"There are three pull levers between you and the pilot. The lever on the left is the throttle lever. Push it down to 25%."
"Ok, done."
"Good, now keep both hands on the control and check your level, right in front of the pilot. Be careful not to go below the horizon line and stay between North and the number three."
"Okay, north and number three, got that."
Danny looked back at Steve, who had now completely lost consciousness. But what really worried Danny was the ever-growing pool of blood under Steve.
"Oh no...hey, you over there, you have to do something for me, okay?!"
"Concentrate on flying, don't talk to me!"
"Do as I say or I'll drop the plane in the water!"
"What do you want?"
"Put your hand on his neck and tell me if you feel a pulse, okay?"
The man complied but had no idea, and didn't even know where exactly to place his hand to feel for a pulse. "I don't know!"
"What do you mean, yo don't know?! Keep your hand on his neck! Either you feel a pulse or you don't!"
Suddenly some kind of alarm went off and Danny picked up the radio again.
"Control, I got an alarm and I don't know what it is!"
"What do you see on the instruments?"
"What I see? I see a lot of things!"
"What's your air speed?"
"Um, the airspeed is 155."
"And your altitude?"
"The altitude is at 500 but falling."
"Fuel?"
"Not good, um, the needle is already at zero."
"Got it, you're running out of fuel."
Danny found out why pretty quickly when he looked out the window and saw that the tank had been hit by bullets and was now running out of fuel.
"Detective, you must land as soon as possible."
"Yes, with pleasure."
"The Coast Guard has been notified. Be ready for an emergency ditching procedure."
"What exactly is ditching?"
"Based on your current altitude, air speed and fuel situation, you will never reach the runway."
Danny thought about this instruction for a moment and then immediately the next problem came up to him. Both engines failed.
"Both engines failed."
"Okay, beneath the dash there is a large red handle that feathers the propellers. Don't fight gravity."
"Red handle, don't fight gravity. Got it."
"All right, Detective, next to the radio control are the landing gear settings. There's a switch labeled "Up Water." Put that down. Now bring the flaps into the landing position."
Danny quickly followed the directions and hoped it would be over soon.
"Okay, done."
"Now you just have to put it down on the water. Switch your course to 175 degrees and just slide down."
"Um, okay, control, that won't work. My partner, he's unconscious. If I put this thing down on the water and I'm not gonna be able to get him out of the plane, he's gonna drown."
"You have no choice, Detective."
"Yeah, I got a choiche. I'm going to land that thing on the beach."
"We strongly advise against this! I understand the concern for your friend, but please remember, your best chance of survival is to land on water."
"I not gonna land the plane on the water, I land it on the beach! Clear the beach!"
Chin, Kono, Catherine and Lou made their way to the airport. Worry was written on their faces. They continued to listen to the radio between air traffic control and Danny as they drove. When they heard what Danny was up to, they turned around and drove straight to the beach and had it cleared. They watched the Cessna approach with tense faces.
On the plane:
Danny turned to Steve and somehow strapped him in.
"Hey Steve, I know you've never been good at listening to me, but now you got no choice, you stubborn son of a bitch! You won't die, okay?! Hey, listen in me, you not die! I'm not landing this thing for you to die, you understand?! Good. All right, here we go."
Then Danny concentrated completely on the landing. "Hold on, hold on…"
The Cessna touched down on the water just before the beach, bounced a few times, landed in the sand and then slid along the beach with a roar until it came to a stop. Immediately, Kono, Catherine, Chin, and Lou came running and opened the door on the pilot's side. Danny called out to them, "He's still alive! Come on!"
From his seat he tried to help as much as possible. Kono arrested the dealer who was about to leave the plane through the hatch. Chin and Lou pulled Steve off the plane and placed him on the paramedics' stretcher. With worried faces, the team bent over their boss. The paramedics treated the wounds temporarily and took him to the ambulance as soon as possible. Danny climbed in and with a worried face he watched as the paramedics continued to tend to the Commander's wounds.
Arriving in the Tripler, Steve was taken straight to the surgery. Undecided and holding his side, Danny stood in the entrance area, a nurse wanted to take care of him, but he refused. He had to talk to the dealer who shot at Steve. When Chin, Kono, Lou and Catherine arrived at the hospital, Danny was already coming towards them.
"Danny?"
"Danny, you need to get checked out!"
"I'm fine, come with me."
So they immediately made their way to the HQ. There, after Danny couldn't control his anger for a moment, the dealer from the plane said who probably shot at the plane. The team headed straight out and busted the competition's drug shipment.
Danny was chasing a man he recognized as the shooter and he wanted to shoot him, but he thought of Steve fighting for his life in the Tripler and deep down, Danny knew Steve would take him out of it would deter. As he turned away from the guy and left him to the HPD, his cell phone rang. The hospital was on the line, something was wrong with Steve. The team quickly made their way back to the Tripler.
A doctor came to them immediately. "I'm afraid I don't have good news. Commander McGarrett has suffered devastating drama to his liver. A bullet has shattered into multiple fragments, making the entire organ inoperable. If he doesn't received a new liver within the next few hours, he will die."
His friends look at him in shock. Everyone immediately offered to be tested to see if they could be a donor, but Danny stepped up.
"I can save you some time. Steve and I have the same blood type so let's just use my liver."
Shortly thereafter, Steve and Danny were prepped for the surgery and the waiting began. Everyone had come to be there for Steve during this time. Everyone were on their thoughts and encounters with Steve. Even Lou, who had been at odds with Steve for a long time, stood in tears at the vending machine and hoped his buddy would survive. Chin thought about the time after Malia died. Every night Steve had been there for him, sitting with him in the café, reading the newspaper and drinking coffee.
Catherine, on the other hand, moved something completely different. Ever since the doctor told them that Steve might not make it, tears have been running down her face. She loved Steve from the bottom of her heart and what might have been her last conversation with him had been a silly argument. Why hadn't she just gone to him and tried to clear up the misunderstanding? If she had asked again how he came up with it, he would have shown her the picture and she could have explained everything to him and it would have been good. But she had felt wrongly attacked and had therefore simply driven away. Her pride had stood in her way before, but she didn't want to imagine what it would mean this time. What if she never saw Steve again? Catherine realized that you had one last moment with every person you met, and most of the time you never knew exactly when that moment would be. Always keep that in mind when saying goodbye, because it could be the last goodbye. But most people didn't realize that until much too late. If Steve survived this, Catherine would never again take the time she spent with him for granted, but instead take it as immeasurably valuable. After all, time was the most valuable thing there was. And there was no way Catherine wanted to stop spending time with Steve...
Thank you very much for your last reviews and I hope you survived the days with the cliffhanger ;)