When Steve and Danny arrived at the school and tried to go in, they noticed that the door was locked. They both knew that something was wrong.
"Danny, please call Duke and the others. Tell them we need them here now and a SWAT team. I'm afraid we might have a hostage situation."
Danny complied immediately, but had to walk away from the building to get a signal.
When he returned about two minutes later, he saw that Steve had already taken his vest out of the Camaro and was putting on his leg holster.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"I need to get in there and find out what's going on."
"Okay, first of all, how are you going to get in there unnoticed? Second, even if you do get in, it could be a suicide mission. You have no idea who's in there!"
"Danny, I'm not going to wait for HPD and the others to get here! The longer we wait, the more dangerous it gets for the people in the building, and I want to get Helen and Grace out of there!"
With that, Steve had actually convinced Danny. So Steve walked around the building looking for a way in. He found what he was looking for at the back, where there was a slightly wider gutter so he could climb onto the roof. Once at the top, he was able to enter the stairwell through a door that wasn't locked. So Steve quickly ran down the stairs to get to the first floor when Danny spoke to him on the radio.
"Hey, buddy, you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm almost at the first floor now. Any news?"
"Yes. You were right about the hostage situation. I just saw that one of the windows says 'Call 911 - Hostage Situation - Help'. By the way, HPD is here now."
"Okay, I'll hurry."
"Steve, hold on a second. Someone's calling me."
Danny pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and almost froze. It was Grace.
"Grace?"
"Good evening, Detective. As we can see, you're probably on the scene as well."
"Where did you get my daughter's cell phone?"
"We took it from her, but don't worry, she's fine, just like all the other hostages. But that will change if you don't do what I tell you."
"Okay, what do you want?"
"We want you to make sure that the drugs that were confiscated in the raid two weeks ago are brought here to the front of the building in an armored SWAT vehicle. Then let me and my men drive it away. This will keep all the hostages safe. You have half an hour."
Before Danny could say anything else, the man hung up.
"Steve, did you hear that?"
"Yeah, listen, we don't want to take any chances, so call the Governor and get this set up. In the meantime, I'm going to try to find out where the hostages are being held and how many men there are so we can make our move. I'll get back to you later, buddy."
"Okay, take care of yourself."
Helen had quietly crept back down to the first floor. There must be something she could do. She didn't even knew if someone would read the message on the window. Well, she had left the light on to make the writing easier to see, but there was no guarantee. She was about to hide in the bathroom again when she was roughly grabbed by the arm. She hadn't noticed anyone coming out of the hallway.
"What are you doing out here?"
"I… I was just going to the bathroom, sir. What's going on?"
"None of your business, come on."
He pulled her arm behind him into the hall and pushed her into one of the corners.
"Shut up and lie down!"
Helen looked around carefully to see if she could see Grace anywhere and was startled when one of the gangsters suddenly pulled Grace up and said something to his boss. He began to grin maliciously and demanded Grace's cell phone. Then she heard him talking on the phone, looking out the window between the drawn curtains. Danny was obviously already there, so her father was probably not far away either.
Steve had reached the first floor and was now standing in the hallway, looking around. There was no one to be seen. He couldn't see his daughter either, but she must have been outside the ballroom because the message on the window was definitely from her. She must have improvised after the call was cut off. He called her name softly, but there was no answer. Then he heard the ballroom door open. Steve quickly went back upstairs and hid behind an open door as the man made his rounds through the hallways. After the man got upstairs, Steve put an arm around his neck from behind and soon the man collapsed without a sound. Steve quickly pulled his black hoodie over his vest and took the gun and radio from him. He bound and gagged the unconscious man and dragged him into an adjoining room behind the door. He removed his leg holster and tucked his gun into the back of his waistband under his hoodie. Like the man, he pulled the hood over his head and slowly walked down the stairs. Then he stood at the door to the ballroom and listened. It was quiet. Steve took a deep breath, pulled the hood back over his face, opened the door and walked into the ballroom, like he was one of the men. He stopped at the door to secure it. When one of the men gave him a look, he responded with a thumbs up and then put his rifle across his chest like the other men.
His heart pounded as he searched the hostages for Helen and Grace, but he could only make out Grace lying next to one of the hostage takers. Where could Helen be? He memorized the positions of the hostage takers, then pretended to check the corridors again and left the room. He radioed the positions of the men and the hostages to Danny. Then he heard the soft clatter of SWAT, led by the Five-0 team. Steve quickly pulled the hood off his head and identified himself to his team. Everyone took their positions, then Steve pushed open the door and burst into the ballroom with the others. Gunshots rang out, and one hostage-taker after another collapsed before they could even react. Steve was already making his way through the ballroom looking for Helen when suddenly a SWAT officer confronted him, opened fire on him, and Steve went down.
"STEVE!" Catherine's horrified scream echoed through the ballroom.
"Are you out of your mind, officer?! Hold your fire!" yelled the SWAT captain.
In three steps, Catherine was at Steve's side, feeling for his pulse with trembling fingers.
"Steve? Steve!"
Anxious seconds passed. Suddenly he sucked in a breath, opened his eyes, and sat up, coughing. Relieved, Catherine threw her arms around his neck. But his only thought was for his daughter.
"Have you seen Helen anywhere?"
Catherine shook her head. "No."
Worried, Steve's eyes continued to search the ballroom for his daughter.
"Helen? HELEN!"
"I'm here!"
Then he saw his daughter push her way past a few other students. Relieved, he took her in his arms.
"Thank God, are you okay?"
He pushed her away a little, and when she nodded, he pulled her back in and planted a kiss on the top of her head. Then he looked around for Grace, but she was already with Danny. Steve smiled reassuringly at Danny and Grace.
As more and more parents rushed into the ballroom, Danny, Catherine, Steve, Helen and Grace made their way out. They were soon joined by the rest of the team, who were also relieved to see the two girls and happy that everything had gone well.
Suddenly, Steve seemed distracted. He looked down at his vest, pulled out his knife and started rummaging around in his bulletproof vest. Stunned, Danny stared at his best friend as he pulverized two bullets out of the vest. Then Steve looked up, walked over to the officer who had shot him, and pressed the bullets into his hand. The officer looked at him, uncomfortably touched.
"Sorry, Commander, I didn't recognize you."
Steve looked at him, he didn't quite believe him, but he couldn't prove otherwise. Wordlessly, he turned away and went back to his team. But the bad feeling in his stomach remained...