Fic for rodlox (Part 3)
Recipient: rodlox
Author: TBA
Disclaimer: Author doesn't own the show or the characters and isn't making any profit.
Title: Mamao (Part 3)
Pairings: Liz/Nikki, Liz/Nikki/Colby, Liz/Kono Kalakaua, Colby/Nikki (If you squint and look sideways, possible reference to Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams)
Crossover Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Threesome, Crossover
Mamao, Part 3
The beach excursion is a dead end.
Back at the hotel, the sky darkening outside, Colby stepped out of the bathroom, almost stepping right back in again when he saw the way Liz and Nikki were staring at each other. He knew that look. This wasn't good.
"Don't even think about skipping out on this," said Nikki, without looking at him.
"Wouldn't dream of it." He sat down on the bed, rested his elbows on his knees and looked up at them. "Is this something we have to do now? In the middle of a case that's too close to going cold again as it is?"
"It's about the case that's going cold," said Liz.
"Oh," Colby felt the weight slip from his shoulders. "What about the case?"
"Wait," said Nikki. "What did you think this was about?"
"Uh... dinner?" It was a pathetic attempt, but he had to say something.
Liz was watching him with the slightest trace of amusement playing at her lips.
"Dinner," she said. "Right."
"What?" said Colby. "I can't be the only one who's starving."
Nikki rolled her eyes. "Anyway," she said, "all I was saying is that we need to step back and let Ian do what he does."
"Which is track the guy down and bring him in," said Colby. "I can't argue with that."
"I think McGarrett's team can help," said Liz.
"What have they done so far? Besides bring us to Hawai," said Nikki. "Which, while a perk, isn't getting us any closer to Fetzner."
"They're organized," said Liz, "they know the island. There's no reason not to involve them."
"They're slowing this thing down," said Nikki.
"You don't know that," said Liz. "You don't know that Ian would be any closer by now than he already is."
"No, you don't know that," said Nikki. "You need to reexamine your loyalties, Warner."
"This isn't the LAPD, Nikki!" Liz said. "It doesn't work like that."
"I know where I work, thank you."
"Hey!" Colby's shout was a little louder than he'd intended, but it had the desired effect and he wasn't about to apologize for it. "Enough. We've got a job to do here. I agree with Nikki. Ian on his own would've probably had this guy by now--but," he held up a hand as Liz started to argue, "McGarrett's on the case now, and he's competent. His team's good. If we lose this guy now, it won't be because of them."
Nikki blew a lock of hair from her forehead and shook her head. "I don't like where this is going."
"Yeah, well," said Liz, and the bitterness in her voice made Colby flinch, "sometimes you've just got to suck it up and get used to it." She muttered something else, too, but Colby wasn't sure he'd heard it quite right.
Nikki had no such reservations. "Because that's what you do?" she said, her tone clipped. "Really? When?"
"Every day for the last two years," said Liz, and she grabbed her purse and keys from the dresser. "Every time Colby's not around and it's just you and me and that... that fucking wall of yours, Nikki."
And there it was, the thing she'd been on the verge of saying for months. Since that first time the three of them were together. The thing she'd always held back even though it hovered over her like a dark halo. The thing Colby had always suspected, but never heard out loud before.
"I have a wall?" said Nikki. "I have a wall? When was the last time you even made eye contact with me?"
"I could ask the same question," said Liz, and she threw open the door.
"Liz--" Colby began, but she cut him off.
"I'm just going downstairs for a drink," she said. The door slammed hard behind her.
Colby exhaled and looked at Nikki.
"Just... don't," she said. "Give me some space."
"Right." He grabbed his keys and wallet, looked back over his shoulder at her as he left, then closed the door behind him. He wanted to make it better, he did, but he knew Nikki well enough to understand that if she had to blow off steam, it was better that she did it when no one was around to get in the way.
Downstairs, at the hotel bar, he wasn't surprised to discover Liz wasn't there. He was, however, a little amused to see Chin sitting at the bar.
"Checking up on us, Kelly?" he said, as he slid onto the barstool beside him.
Chin smiled without looking over at him. "This doesn't look like the kind of place I'd frequent otherwise?"
"Don't know," said Colby. He asked the bartender for a beer, whatever was on tap. "For all I know, you've got a secret thing for tourist traps."
"Maybe," said Chin. "I don't suppose it would do any good to ask if Edgerton's told you anything we don't already know?"
"Not a word," said Colby. "I can tell you that honestly."
Chin nodded. "Where're your partners?"
Colby took a swig of beer and snorted. "We all needed a little breathing room," he said.
"Ah." Chin turned to face him and nodded knowingly. "This might be a personal question but... You've got something going on with Betancourt?"
"I... It's more complicated than that," said Colby.
"Isn't it always," said Chin, and he sipped his own drink.
"You're married," said Colby.
"Recently," Chin said, "yeah." And he smiled this genuine, slightly bashful smile that, all told, made Colby just the littlest bit jealous. "So, do you think we're close to finding this guy?"
For a second, Colby wanted to ask how Chin knew he wanted to marry his wife, what had made Chin ask Colby about Nikki and not Liz. He wanted to know what had made him ask about Nikki at all, really. Then they were talking about the case and it was a much more comfortable topic, and Colby realized this was a guy he was happy to have a beer with, maybe for the first time since David moved away.
"Yeah," he said, not entirely sure it was the truth. "I do."
~@~@~@~
Kono's house is not at all hard to find.
Liz pressed her lips together, rocking up on the balls of her toes. She didn't know what she was doing here, but she had to get far away from that hotel room. This was the farthest place she could think of. She glanced behind her, then turned back to the door and knocked.
When Kono answered, she didn't look surprised.
"Liz, hey, come in."
"Is this an okay time for a visit?" said Liz. "I don't have to be here." I shouldn't be here.
"Oh, yeah. Of course it is," said Kono. "Here, I'll get you a drink. I just talked to Chin and he says the stakeout hasn't come to anything yet. They think it'll be morning before someone shows up. But you probably already knew that, didn't you?"
"Nope," said Liz. "McGarrett seems a lot better at this whole keeping the team in the loop thing than Ian."
"Yeah." Kono smiled over her shoulder and Liz followed her into the kitchen. "Edgerton's a bit of a lone wolf?"
"A bit," Liz said. "Frankly, I'm shocked he called us in the first place."
Kono opened the fridge and stuck her head inside. "What can I get you?"
"I'll take a beer if you have it."
"Shit, I'm out."
Liz smiled. "Anything, then. I swear, I'm not picky."
"I haven't been home lately," said Kono. "I don't have much to offer, but I do have a bottle of pinot grigio that's been sitting in here for a while." She held it up. "It's going to be too cold, but--"
"It's fine," said Liz. "Really. Where do you keep the glasses?"
An hour later, most of the bottle was gone, and Liz sat on one end of the couch with her leg up, chin resting on her knee. Kono sat beside her, slumped down on the couch, legs sprawled out, in a way that, once again, brought to mind Colby. Except he'd never looked this graceful.
"And then he went into rehab," said Liz, and she emptied her glass.
Kono smiled and she turned to Liz, swinging one hand lazily against the back of the couch, her fingertip brushing Liz's elbow.
"And what happened when he got out?"
Liz shrugged. "That's the funny thing," she said. "Nothing. I... was there for him. But it was... Like a fuse that burned itself out while he was away."
"Were you sorry?"
"For the missed opportunity, I guess. But I don't know if Cam and I would have been right."
Kono nodded. She hadn't pulled her finger away and Liz found herself edging a little closer, pressing into the touch.
"I'm not a fan of missed opportunities myself," said Kono.
Liz watched her expression carefully, taking stock of her. In Kono's eyes she saw exactly what she'd been expecting (hoping). She glanced over to the empty wine bottle. She wasn't drunk, not even tipsy, but everything that had been wound so tightly beneath the weight of tension with Nikki lay slack and loose over her shoulders and chest.
They'd never sworn off other partners.
Liz wrapped her hand around Kono's fingers. "Then I'd hate to see you miss one," she said, and she lowered her knee to the couch.
They moved at the same time, lips catching, Liz's fingers threading through Kono's hair. Kono rising up on her knees to straddle Liz's lap. It all just fell into place. Everything that had been wrong before was suddenly not wrong at all. Liz slid her hands up Kono's sides and slid down onto her back and Kono braced herself on the arm of the couch.
Getting into Kono's pants in this position was a harder proposition than Liz expected, and they both laughed as Kono struggled to strip above her. Once successful, though, Liz drew a breath and slid her hands up the inside of Kono's thighs, pressing her legs apart. Her fingers glided across Kono's soft skin, and she bit into her lip at the sound of Kono's gasp when the tip of Liz's thumb found her folds.
"God," Kono whispered.
Liz let the tip of her thumb slide back and forth, stroking Kono until her breath grew heavy and her hips started to rock with impatience. She watched, enthralled, as Kono's hair fell forward and she bent her head, a dark curtain blocking out the rest of the world, leaving only Liz and the beautiful woman spread open over her. She wondered why it had never been like this before, never felt like the world was unfurling in slow motion.
She pressed the pad of her thumb to Kono's clit.
"Fuck." Kono's knees slid apart, drawing her closer to Liz.
"Oh, yeah," Liz murmured, and she reached up to Kono's hips and tugged her down.
~@~@~@~
The knock on the door is early, and ridiculously insistent.
Liz blinked herself awake as Kono scrambled out of the bed and into a pair of jeans. The low buzz of Liz's phone was drowned out by the pounding on the door, and it took a few more seconds before she was climbing off the bed and fishing through the clothing and undergarments spread all over the floor as well.
"Warner," she said, but she was only greeted with a "Nevermind," before the call on the other end of the line hung up.
"Oh, hey, boss," she heard Kono say from the other room.
"You're not answering your phone," said McGarrett, and his voice grew louder; he'd obviously come inside.
"What? Of course I am. My phone is... Oh." Kono's voice was followed by a dripping sound that Liz thought could only be a harbinger of big trouble. Liz started slipping into her clothes, vaguely remembering the sound of something small and dense falling into... a glass of wine.
There was silence for a few seconds, and then, "We're trying to find out if all your FBI agents are accounted for," said Williams.
"Shit," Liz whispered to herself, and she took her gun from the bedside table, pulled her hair back, and left the bedroom.
"What Danny's trying to say is that Edgerton's gone," said McGarrett.
"That's not surprising," Liz said, stepping out into full view.
Kono registered shock only for a moment, offering Liz a slight smile before turning back to the two men. To their credit, they seemed willing to ignore the obvious for now.
"Of course it's not surprising," said Williams. "The guy's like an eel."
"An eel?" said McGarrett.
"Yes. An eel. An eel is slippery and, as far as I know, does not suffer from the compunction to behave like a socialized human being. What?"
"Nothing," said McGarrett. "I just... eel."
Liz's phone went off again as the argument continued and she turned away to answer it.
"Colby," she said to Kono before, "Yeah?"
"Just got a call from Ian," said Colby. "He's got something. We're on our way to Five-0 headquarters right now. Where are you?"
"I'm... With McGarrett's team. We'll meet you there."
"Got it."
Liz looked up and cleared her throat. "I hate to break up your marital spat, but Ian just checked in with Colby and Nikki. He's got something."
~@~@~@~
What's that they say about early birds and worms?
Steve didn't like the feeling of walking into his own offices to find Ian Edgerton already there, sporting a Cheshire cat grin as if he'd been lying in wait. But there was something undeniably charismatic about Edgerton. In spite of his reservations, Steve found himself eager to hear about what Edgerton had learned.
"I thought everyone around here always showed up late," said Edgerton. "This is impressive."
"Get to the point, Edgerton," said Steve. He was fairly sure Danny was boiling over with so many rants at one time that none of them could escape him.
Edgerton held up an evidence bag, inside lay a hunting knife with a gut hook.
"Fetzner's weapon of choice," said Steve. "Where did you find it?"
"I retraced our steps. He hasn't moved out of his comfort zone yet. One of our victims is wrong," said Edgerton.
"Wrong?" said Danny. "Wrong? How can a dead man be wrong?"
"Copycat?" Granger asked.
"Fishing accident," said Edgerton. "Talked to your guy Max and got him to take a closer look at that second autopsy report. On the surface, it matched the rest, bound, bag on the head. The difference was they found him in the water. Max did his magic little thing and found a few details that didn't add up, and now that body's telling a different story."
"Wasn't that the one that brought you to Hawaii?" said Betancourt.
"Yeah," said Edgerton.
"So we found this guy by chance," Granger said. "There was only one actual victim when that body was found."
"And now there's two," said Steve. "We may have bought ourselves a little time. If we haven't spooked the guy."
"Trust me," said Edgerton, "he's not spooked. He's obsessed with his routines. He's not leaving until he's taken this rollercoaster to the end."
"Yet he's dumb enough to leave the perfect piece of evidence?" said Danny. He clearly wasn't buying Edgerton's story.
"This isn't the blade he's been using to kill his victims," said Edgerton. "This is a back up. He kept a stash hidden pretty well at the last place he was squatting. Found something similar when he was in West Hollywood." He smiled at Steve. "Do you see what I can get done when I'm unfettered, Commander?"
"I still like you better fettered, and where I can see you," said Danny.
"He was talking to me," said Steve.
Edgerton's grin turned smirk, Danny bristled, and Steve decided it was time to break them up.
"Where did you say you found that?" he said. "Because I've got a friend I'd like you to talk to. If we have one locked location, he might know where Fetzner's going next. How do you feel about shave ice?"
~@~@~@~
Sometimes Ian does play well with others.
Nikki was already leaning back against the car, arms crossed over her chest as she watched Ian walk up to the big man at the shave ice stand. Liz was still getting out of the car. She closed the door behind her, hesitated for a moment, then walked around to stand beside Nikki.
"I guess McGarrett's finally warmed up to us," she said. "Leaving Ian in our custody and all."
"Or he wants to make it our fault when Ian takes off on his own again."
"I'm beginning to think we're not going to settle this without a mediator," said Liz.
Nikki snorted. "Well, we know Granger's not up to the task."
Liz let herself smile at that. "I can't be the only one who's starving," she said in her very best impression of Colby.
"The guy can go undercover for two years, lie to everybody he knows, and no one has a clue, but us? Put him down in the middle of an argument and he's flailing," said Nikki.
"In his defense," said Liz, "I don't think that time he compared us to a war zone was so far off."
Nikki was quiet then, watching Ian off in the distance, and Liz wanted to ask how long they were going to keep trying the same thing, only to let it blow up in their faces again and again. The peel of tires in the parking lot derailed her train of thought. They spun around together to see Steve and Danny getting out of the front of the car, Colby and Kono stepping out of the back.
"Just got a call from Max," said Steve. He was walking fast, and Liz and Nikki rounded the car to meet him half way. "He found something on the victim."
"In the vic, actually," said Danny.
"In the blood test?" asked Nikki.
"In his stomach," said Colby. "A piece of Fetzner's finger. This last guy? Put up a hell of a fight."
"He's always used surprise to his advantage before," said Liz. "Attacking before the victim sees him."
"Well, this time he was seen," said Colby. "And bitten."
"This could change everything," said Liz. "What he's thinking. What he expects out of the next victim. How he goes after his next victim."
"Yeah," said Steve. "Well, we've got to find this guy before he gets that chance."
"Your friend's interesting, McGarrett," said Ian, suddenly beside them. "And informative." He raised his brightly colored cup of ice in the direction of the stand, where Kamekona stood giving him a wave in return. "I think we may have a winner in the location game."
"That didn't take long," said Nikki.
"I've got a lot of charm," said Ian.
Nikki and Danny made identical sounds of irritation.
"Let's move," said Steve. "Kono, call Chin and Lori."
"Right, boss," said Kono, and she was on her phone in a second, walking back to the car. Liz only watched her for a few paces before pulling her head back into the game. They were close, close enough to make the small hairs start to rise on the back of her neck, and she wasn't going to lose her focus now.
"We're taking this guy, now," Steve was saying. "Warner, you take Granger and--Where did Edgerton go?"
They all glanced around the parking lot, but Ian was nowhere to be seen.
"He went to bring in his man," said Colby, looking unsurprised. Liz couldn't say she hadn't expected it either.
"I knew we couldn't trust that guy," said Danny. "Dammit!"
Nikki's phone went off and she glanced down to check the text. "He sent us the address," she said.
"All right," said Steve. "Let's go."
"That's it?" said Danny. "Just 'let's go'? No 'Danny, you were right. Edgerton's not a team player'?"
"He sent us the address," said Steve.
"He sent us an address," said Danny. "We don't even know if it's the right one."
Steve started for the car. "What can I say," he said, and Liz thought this was the first time she'd seen him crack a smile since they got here. "The guy's got a lot of charm."
Before Liz could open her door, Colby had a hand on her elbow. She looked up, raising an eyebrow at him.
"You all right?" he said.
"Yes," Liz said quickly. She nodded. "Yeah. Colby, I'm just fine."
He frowned slightly, then gave her a nod and followed Steve to the other vehicle. Liz took a deep breath and slid into the driver's seat.
~@~@~@~
Author: TBA
Disclaimer: Author doesn't own the show or the characters and isn't making any profit.
Title: Mamao (Part 3)
Pairings: Liz/Nikki, Liz/Nikki/Colby, Liz/Kono Kalakaua, Colby/Nikki (If you squint and look sideways, possible reference to Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams)
Crossover Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Threesome, Crossover
Mamao, Part 3
The beach excursion is a dead end.
Back at the hotel, the sky darkening outside, Colby stepped out of the bathroom, almost stepping right back in again when he saw the way Liz and Nikki were staring at each other. He knew that look. This wasn't good.
"Don't even think about skipping out on this," said Nikki, without looking at him.
"Wouldn't dream of it." He sat down on the bed, rested his elbows on his knees and looked up at them. "Is this something we have to do now? In the middle of a case that's too close to going cold again as it is?"
"It's about the case that's going cold," said Liz.
"Oh," Colby felt the weight slip from his shoulders. "What about the case?"
"Wait," said Nikki. "What did you think this was about?"
"Uh... dinner?" It was a pathetic attempt, but he had to say something.
Liz was watching him with the slightest trace of amusement playing at her lips.
"Dinner," she said. "Right."
"What?" said Colby. "I can't be the only one who's starving."
Nikki rolled her eyes. "Anyway," she said, "all I was saying is that we need to step back and let Ian do what he does."
"Which is track the guy down and bring him in," said Colby. "I can't argue with that."
"I think McGarrett's team can help," said Liz.
"What have they done so far? Besides bring us to Hawai," said Nikki. "Which, while a perk, isn't getting us any closer to Fetzner."
"They're organized," said Liz, "they know the island. There's no reason not to involve them."
"They're slowing this thing down," said Nikki.
"You don't know that," said Liz. "You don't know that Ian would be any closer by now than he already is."
"No, you don't know that," said Nikki. "You need to reexamine your loyalties, Warner."
"This isn't the LAPD, Nikki!" Liz said. "It doesn't work like that."
"I know where I work, thank you."
"Hey!" Colby's shout was a little louder than he'd intended, but it had the desired effect and he wasn't about to apologize for it. "Enough. We've got a job to do here. I agree with Nikki. Ian on his own would've probably had this guy by now--but," he held up a hand as Liz started to argue, "McGarrett's on the case now, and he's competent. His team's good. If we lose this guy now, it won't be because of them."
Nikki blew a lock of hair from her forehead and shook her head. "I don't like where this is going."
"Yeah, well," said Liz, and the bitterness in her voice made Colby flinch, "sometimes you've just got to suck it up and get used to it." She muttered something else, too, but Colby wasn't sure he'd heard it quite right.
Nikki had no such reservations. "Because that's what you do?" she said, her tone clipped. "Really? When?"
"Every day for the last two years," said Liz, and she grabbed her purse and keys from the dresser. "Every time Colby's not around and it's just you and me and that... that fucking wall of yours, Nikki."
And there it was, the thing she'd been on the verge of saying for months. Since that first time the three of them were together. The thing she'd always held back even though it hovered over her like a dark halo. The thing Colby had always suspected, but never heard out loud before.
"I have a wall?" said Nikki. "I have a wall? When was the last time you even made eye contact with me?"
"I could ask the same question," said Liz, and she threw open the door.
"Liz--" Colby began, but she cut him off.
"I'm just going downstairs for a drink," she said. The door slammed hard behind her.
Colby exhaled and looked at Nikki.
"Just... don't," she said. "Give me some space."
"Right." He grabbed his keys and wallet, looked back over his shoulder at her as he left, then closed the door behind him. He wanted to make it better, he did, but he knew Nikki well enough to understand that if she had to blow off steam, it was better that she did it when no one was around to get in the way.
Downstairs, at the hotel bar, he wasn't surprised to discover Liz wasn't there. He was, however, a little amused to see Chin sitting at the bar.
"Checking up on us, Kelly?" he said, as he slid onto the barstool beside him.
Chin smiled without looking over at him. "This doesn't look like the kind of place I'd frequent otherwise?"
"Don't know," said Colby. He asked the bartender for a beer, whatever was on tap. "For all I know, you've got a secret thing for tourist traps."
"Maybe," said Chin. "I don't suppose it would do any good to ask if Edgerton's told you anything we don't already know?"
"Not a word," said Colby. "I can tell you that honestly."
Chin nodded. "Where're your partners?"
Colby took a swig of beer and snorted. "We all needed a little breathing room," he said.
"Ah." Chin turned to face him and nodded knowingly. "This might be a personal question but... You've got something going on with Betancourt?"
"I... It's more complicated than that," said Colby.
"Isn't it always," said Chin, and he sipped his own drink.
"You're married," said Colby.
"Recently," Chin said, "yeah." And he smiled this genuine, slightly bashful smile that, all told, made Colby just the littlest bit jealous. "So, do you think we're close to finding this guy?"
For a second, Colby wanted to ask how Chin knew he wanted to marry his wife, what had made Chin ask Colby about Nikki and not Liz. He wanted to know what had made him ask about Nikki at all, really. Then they were talking about the case and it was a much more comfortable topic, and Colby realized this was a guy he was happy to have a beer with, maybe for the first time since David moved away.
"Yeah," he said, not entirely sure it was the truth. "I do."
~@~@~@~
Kono's house is not at all hard to find.
Liz pressed her lips together, rocking up on the balls of her toes. She didn't know what she was doing here, but she had to get far away from that hotel room. This was the farthest place she could think of. She glanced behind her, then turned back to the door and knocked.
When Kono answered, she didn't look surprised.
"Liz, hey, come in."
"Is this an okay time for a visit?" said Liz. "I don't have to be here." I shouldn't be here.
"Oh, yeah. Of course it is," said Kono. "Here, I'll get you a drink. I just talked to Chin and he says the stakeout hasn't come to anything yet. They think it'll be morning before someone shows up. But you probably already knew that, didn't you?"
"Nope," said Liz. "McGarrett seems a lot better at this whole keeping the team in the loop thing than Ian."
"Yeah." Kono smiled over her shoulder and Liz followed her into the kitchen. "Edgerton's a bit of a lone wolf?"
"A bit," Liz said. "Frankly, I'm shocked he called us in the first place."
Kono opened the fridge and stuck her head inside. "What can I get you?"
"I'll take a beer if you have it."
"Shit, I'm out."
Liz smiled. "Anything, then. I swear, I'm not picky."
"I haven't been home lately," said Kono. "I don't have much to offer, but I do have a bottle of pinot grigio that's been sitting in here for a while." She held it up. "It's going to be too cold, but--"
"It's fine," said Liz. "Really. Where do you keep the glasses?"
An hour later, most of the bottle was gone, and Liz sat on one end of the couch with her leg up, chin resting on her knee. Kono sat beside her, slumped down on the couch, legs sprawled out, in a way that, once again, brought to mind Colby. Except he'd never looked this graceful.
"And then he went into rehab," said Liz, and she emptied her glass.
Kono smiled and she turned to Liz, swinging one hand lazily against the back of the couch, her fingertip brushing Liz's elbow.
"And what happened when he got out?"
Liz shrugged. "That's the funny thing," she said. "Nothing. I... was there for him. But it was... Like a fuse that burned itself out while he was away."
"Were you sorry?"
"For the missed opportunity, I guess. But I don't know if Cam and I would have been right."
Kono nodded. She hadn't pulled her finger away and Liz found herself edging a little closer, pressing into the touch.
"I'm not a fan of missed opportunities myself," said Kono.
Liz watched her expression carefully, taking stock of her. In Kono's eyes she saw exactly what she'd been expecting (hoping). She glanced over to the empty wine bottle. She wasn't drunk, not even tipsy, but everything that had been wound so tightly beneath the weight of tension with Nikki lay slack and loose over her shoulders and chest.
They'd never sworn off other partners.
Liz wrapped her hand around Kono's fingers. "Then I'd hate to see you miss one," she said, and she lowered her knee to the couch.
They moved at the same time, lips catching, Liz's fingers threading through Kono's hair. Kono rising up on her knees to straddle Liz's lap. It all just fell into place. Everything that had been wrong before was suddenly not wrong at all. Liz slid her hands up Kono's sides and slid down onto her back and Kono braced herself on the arm of the couch.
Getting into Kono's pants in this position was a harder proposition than Liz expected, and they both laughed as Kono struggled to strip above her. Once successful, though, Liz drew a breath and slid her hands up the inside of Kono's thighs, pressing her legs apart. Her fingers glided across Kono's soft skin, and she bit into her lip at the sound of Kono's gasp when the tip of Liz's thumb found her folds.
"God," Kono whispered.
Liz let the tip of her thumb slide back and forth, stroking Kono until her breath grew heavy and her hips started to rock with impatience. She watched, enthralled, as Kono's hair fell forward and she bent her head, a dark curtain blocking out the rest of the world, leaving only Liz and the beautiful woman spread open over her. She wondered why it had never been like this before, never felt like the world was unfurling in slow motion.
She pressed the pad of her thumb to Kono's clit.
"Fuck." Kono's knees slid apart, drawing her closer to Liz.
"Oh, yeah," Liz murmured, and she reached up to Kono's hips and tugged her down.
~@~@~@~
The knock on the door is early, and ridiculously insistent.
Liz blinked herself awake as Kono scrambled out of the bed and into a pair of jeans. The low buzz of Liz's phone was drowned out by the pounding on the door, and it took a few more seconds before she was climbing off the bed and fishing through the clothing and undergarments spread all over the floor as well.
"Warner," she said, but she was only greeted with a "Nevermind," before the call on the other end of the line hung up.
"Oh, hey, boss," she heard Kono say from the other room.
"You're not answering your phone," said McGarrett, and his voice grew louder; he'd obviously come inside.
"What? Of course I am. My phone is... Oh." Kono's voice was followed by a dripping sound that Liz thought could only be a harbinger of big trouble. Liz started slipping into her clothes, vaguely remembering the sound of something small and dense falling into... a glass of wine.
There was silence for a few seconds, and then, "We're trying to find out if all your FBI agents are accounted for," said Williams.
"Shit," Liz whispered to herself, and she took her gun from the bedside table, pulled her hair back, and left the bedroom.
"What Danny's trying to say is that Edgerton's gone," said McGarrett.
"That's not surprising," Liz said, stepping out into full view.
Kono registered shock only for a moment, offering Liz a slight smile before turning back to the two men. To their credit, they seemed willing to ignore the obvious for now.
"Of course it's not surprising," said Williams. "The guy's like an eel."
"An eel?" said McGarrett.
"Yes. An eel. An eel is slippery and, as far as I know, does not suffer from the compunction to behave like a socialized human being. What?"
"Nothing," said McGarrett. "I just... eel."
Liz's phone went off again as the argument continued and she turned away to answer it.
"Colby," she said to Kono before, "Yeah?"
"Just got a call from Ian," said Colby. "He's got something. We're on our way to Five-0 headquarters right now. Where are you?"
"I'm... With McGarrett's team. We'll meet you there."
"Got it."
Liz looked up and cleared her throat. "I hate to break up your marital spat, but Ian just checked in with Colby and Nikki. He's got something."
~@~@~@~
What's that they say about early birds and worms?
Steve didn't like the feeling of walking into his own offices to find Ian Edgerton already there, sporting a Cheshire cat grin as if he'd been lying in wait. But there was something undeniably charismatic about Edgerton. In spite of his reservations, Steve found himself eager to hear about what Edgerton had learned.
"I thought everyone around here always showed up late," said Edgerton. "This is impressive."
"Get to the point, Edgerton," said Steve. He was fairly sure Danny was boiling over with so many rants at one time that none of them could escape him.
Edgerton held up an evidence bag, inside lay a hunting knife with a gut hook.
"Fetzner's weapon of choice," said Steve. "Where did you find it?"
"I retraced our steps. He hasn't moved out of his comfort zone yet. One of our victims is wrong," said Edgerton.
"Wrong?" said Danny. "Wrong? How can a dead man be wrong?"
"Copycat?" Granger asked.
"Fishing accident," said Edgerton. "Talked to your guy Max and got him to take a closer look at that second autopsy report. On the surface, it matched the rest, bound, bag on the head. The difference was they found him in the water. Max did his magic little thing and found a few details that didn't add up, and now that body's telling a different story."
"Wasn't that the one that brought you to Hawaii?" said Betancourt.
"Yeah," said Edgerton.
"So we found this guy by chance," Granger said. "There was only one actual victim when that body was found."
"And now there's two," said Steve. "We may have bought ourselves a little time. If we haven't spooked the guy."
"Trust me," said Edgerton, "he's not spooked. He's obsessed with his routines. He's not leaving until he's taken this rollercoaster to the end."
"Yet he's dumb enough to leave the perfect piece of evidence?" said Danny. He clearly wasn't buying Edgerton's story.
"This isn't the blade he's been using to kill his victims," said Edgerton. "This is a back up. He kept a stash hidden pretty well at the last place he was squatting. Found something similar when he was in West Hollywood." He smiled at Steve. "Do you see what I can get done when I'm unfettered, Commander?"
"I still like you better fettered, and where I can see you," said Danny.
"He was talking to me," said Steve.
Edgerton's grin turned smirk, Danny bristled, and Steve decided it was time to break them up.
"Where did you say you found that?" he said. "Because I've got a friend I'd like you to talk to. If we have one locked location, he might know where Fetzner's going next. How do you feel about shave ice?"
~@~@~@~
Sometimes Ian does play well with others.
Nikki was already leaning back against the car, arms crossed over her chest as she watched Ian walk up to the big man at the shave ice stand. Liz was still getting out of the car. She closed the door behind her, hesitated for a moment, then walked around to stand beside Nikki.
"I guess McGarrett's finally warmed up to us," she said. "Leaving Ian in our custody and all."
"Or he wants to make it our fault when Ian takes off on his own again."
"I'm beginning to think we're not going to settle this without a mediator," said Liz.
Nikki snorted. "Well, we know Granger's not up to the task."
Liz let herself smile at that. "I can't be the only one who's starving," she said in her very best impression of Colby.
"The guy can go undercover for two years, lie to everybody he knows, and no one has a clue, but us? Put him down in the middle of an argument and he's flailing," said Nikki.
"In his defense," said Liz, "I don't think that time he compared us to a war zone was so far off."
Nikki was quiet then, watching Ian off in the distance, and Liz wanted to ask how long they were going to keep trying the same thing, only to let it blow up in their faces again and again. The peel of tires in the parking lot derailed her train of thought. They spun around together to see Steve and Danny getting out of the front of the car, Colby and Kono stepping out of the back.
"Just got a call from Max," said Steve. He was walking fast, and Liz and Nikki rounded the car to meet him half way. "He found something on the victim."
"In the vic, actually," said Danny.
"In the blood test?" asked Nikki.
"In his stomach," said Colby. "A piece of Fetzner's finger. This last guy? Put up a hell of a fight."
"He's always used surprise to his advantage before," said Liz. "Attacking before the victim sees him."
"Well, this time he was seen," said Colby. "And bitten."
"This could change everything," said Liz. "What he's thinking. What he expects out of the next victim. How he goes after his next victim."
"Yeah," said Steve. "Well, we've got to find this guy before he gets that chance."
"Your friend's interesting, McGarrett," said Ian, suddenly beside them. "And informative." He raised his brightly colored cup of ice in the direction of the stand, where Kamekona stood giving him a wave in return. "I think we may have a winner in the location game."
"That didn't take long," said Nikki.
"I've got a lot of charm," said Ian.
Nikki and Danny made identical sounds of irritation.
"Let's move," said Steve. "Kono, call Chin and Lori."
"Right, boss," said Kono, and she was on her phone in a second, walking back to the car. Liz only watched her for a few paces before pulling her head back into the game. They were close, close enough to make the small hairs start to rise on the back of her neck, and she wasn't going to lose her focus now.
"We're taking this guy, now," Steve was saying. "Warner, you take Granger and--Where did Edgerton go?"
They all glanced around the parking lot, but Ian was nowhere to be seen.
"He went to bring in his man," said Colby, looking unsurprised. Liz couldn't say she hadn't expected it either.
"I knew we couldn't trust that guy," said Danny. "Dammit!"
Nikki's phone went off and she glanced down to check the text. "He sent us the address," she said.
"All right," said Steve. "Let's go."
"That's it?" said Danny. "Just 'let's go'? No 'Danny, you were right. Edgerton's not a team player'?"
"He sent us the address," said Steve.
"He sent us an address," said Danny. "We don't even know if it's the right one."
Steve started for the car. "What can I say," he said, and Liz thought this was the first time she'd seen him crack a smile since they got here. "The guy's got a lot of charm."
Before Liz could open her door, Colby had a hand on her elbow. She looked up, raising an eyebrow at him.
"You all right?" he said.
"Yes," Liz said quickly. She nodded. "Yeah. Colby, I'm just fine."
He frowned slightly, then gave her a nod and followed Steve to the other vehicle. Liz took a deep breath and slid into the driver's seat.
~@~@~@~