Fic:Things Always Happen for a Reason - Pt 3 / 4

[xenite99]

Title: Things Always Happen for a Reason - Pt 3 / 4
Fandom: Hawaii Five-O
Pairing: none per se
Summary: the Five-O team learns to deal with interlopers on their little Ohana
Warnings: this was written before the events of Ep1.12 so I guess it would be considered AU.
Disclaimer: Anything recognizable is not mine….

Word Count: 4118

Reference: http://hawaiian-words.com http://www.e-hawaii.com/pidgin

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The whole team was relaxing out on the beach behind Steve’s house. They had just finished off a round of pizza and were now working on the beer.

“Wow! Who knew we could polish off 6 pizzas in less than half an hour?” Ano asked with a chuckle as he rubbed his full stomach.

“Well, I think you polished off 2 of those all by yourself there big guy!” Kami teased.

They all laughed, finally able to relax and let loose for a change. Steve was glad to see his team like this. He missed the camaraderie of his ohana. He will be glad when he can get back in to the fight right along their side. He wouldn’t be cleared for full duty for some time yet, but light desk duty would be the first step. He would be happy with what he could get!

“Well I am glad to see Danno has someone to share his deplorable eating habits with!” Steve smiled over at his partner.

“Ha Ha Ha! Real funny Steve-o! Real funny!” Danny chucked a piece of pizza crust at his head. Steve lifted his eyebrows in question at this move. He smiled evilly.

“You didn’t just do that? Because, you do not want to start a food fight with me, brah.” Steve warned with a twinkle in his eye.

“Bring it on tough guy!” Danny antagonized with a serious look on his face as he waggled his hands in invitation. He picked up another piece of crust and chucked it at Steve’s head. The crust smacked him right between the eyes. Danny was a pretty good shot after all.

That was the starting volley in a nice little food fight. After about 10 minutes of flying pizza crust, pineapple, ham, sauce and whatever else they could get their hands on, the fight was over. The team fell heavily to the ground, breathing like they had run a race and laughing so hard the tears ran down their faces right along with the food. This was something all of them needed.

The sound of the Imperial March blasting from someone’s cell phone brought the fun atmosphere to a complete halt. Kami jumped up to answer her phone. She was not looking forward to answering this call. It was the governor and at this time of night it was never a good sign.

“Yes Governor.” Kami snapped back into reality. The relaxed fun evening ended just like that. Her face had gone all business, showing no emotion. The whole team fell into an expectant silence. She had turned her back to them so she could concentrate on what the governor was saying. She didn’t want to show the team how much she was affected by the conversation. This was not going to go over well with any of them. “Yes Ma’am. Understood. But he needs to know! I won’t keep this from him, not this!”  Kami stated, trying to keep from yelling at the governor. “Thank you. I will keep you apprised. Good night, Governor.” She hung up the phone as she took a deep breath and turned back to her team.

“What’s going on Kami? That didn’t sound good at all.” Danny asked with trepidation, fearing the answer.

All the guys looked at her hoping they weren’t the “He” she mentioned. Kami raised her gaze to Steve as she moved slowly over to him. He was standing, barely.

“Steve, please sit down. You are not going to like what I have to say. I am so sorry, brah!”  Steve almost fell into the nearest chair. They all rushed over to him as he looked faint.

“Just tell me.” Steve said through gritted teeth.

“It’s Greg Sampson. They found his body earlier out on Molokaʻi. They say he has been there for at least a week or more. They are going to do an autopsy but there isn’t much of him left. They will do their best.” She was holding it together as best she could. “I know he was a close friend of yours Steve. You had a right to know. But he was also a very good cop. He will be missed terribly by all of us. The governor didn’t think you should be told due to your condition but there was no way I could work this case behind your back.” She said as she clenched Steve’s hand in her own. He was holding on for dear life.

“I want in on this case! All the way! I can’t sit this one out. I won’t!” Steve demanded.

“No! I know you want to get who’s responsible for this, but you are not ready yet. We will keep you in the loop all the way but you can’t be active on this for so many reasons. I’m sorry Steve!”  She knew this was going to kill him to not be able to work this case. Steve leveled a glare on her that would have most people cowering. She glared back with as much conviction. She was just the person to get him to back down. Anyone else on the team would have been bullied into letting him do this. Kami wasn’t going to back down on this and he knew it. That was why he had handpicked her for his team to begin with.

Kami laid a strong but comforting hand on his shoulder. “You gotta trust us that we will get this guy. Not just for you, but all of us. He was a brother cop. We take care of our own. We will get this fucker! Promise!” Kami looked at each of her team in turn. They all gave a nod and got up to go. She squeezed Steve’s shoulder as she got up to go as well.

“I will call you as soon as I know anything. Try to get some rest. I know this won’t be easy for you. I don’t think we will be getting much sleep anytime soon.” She said as she headed to back to her car.

Steve sat on the beach for most of the night. He couldn’t bring himself to move. He was lost in his memories of his friend. He did trust Kami and the team to solve this case. But he just didn’t like being left on the sidelines. These past few months have been tough on him in that respect. He loved the action of a case. It was all about the chase, whether it was running, driving or even the horrible paper trail. He wasn’t a cop by trade but he loved his job. He had a great team he could rely on and trust to have his back. He had to suck it up and let them do their jobs now. Without him.

“This sucks!” he growled into the night. He got up and slowly made his way into the house. Maybe a few hours of sleep would take the sting out of this whole fucking situation.

~~~~

The team worked tirelessly for days on Greg’s case. Kami had to fill Danny in on who he was since he had never worked with Greg before. Greg had been deep undercover with a local gang organization. The word throughout the HPD was that he was made and subsequently taken out. Kami had a gut feeling that there was more to it than that.

By the 3rd day the team was beat. They hadn’t had more than a few hours sleep each between them. They were snappy with each other to the point that Kami and Danny almost came to blows.

“Ok! Time out! We all need sleep. We are not going to get any closer to solving this mess if we fight amongst ourselves. We are all going home and getting a decent nights rest. No exceptions!” Kami ordered.  The team all grumbled their way out the door. It was actually better for all of them this way.

Kami wanted to make sure Steve was ok, so she made her way over to his place before she went home. She knew she could have called him but he needed her support right now and a phone call just wouldn’t cut it. She waited on Steve’s front porch for him to answer the door. She hoped she didn’t wake him but she saw a few lights on. When she got no answer she made her way around the back of the house. She wanted to make sure he was really ok before she left.

Kami found Steve lying on a lounge chair out on his beach. He was just watching the sun hit the horizon as the full moon came up. It was a beautiful sight. She didn’t want to disturb him but knew she had to let him know what was going on. She made sure to make enough noise so he knew she was there. He was apt to jump up and point a gun at her head if she tried to sneak up on him. She was no dummy. He was a trained SEAL and always had his gun at the ready. This was the bane of Danny’s existence.

“Hey, Kahuna! How’s it?”

“”Mmm…well under the circumstances I guess I would say I am ok. I mean I am alive, right? That’s a good thing, I think.” Steve replied with a slight slur to his words. He had been hitting the bottle more and more lately and that concerned her greatly. She hated seeing him like this. She wasn’t sure how to handle him in this state. He was a complicated man on a good day. This just upped the ante. She was going to have to use kid gloves with her boss and that was not going to be easy.

“I came by to give you the sitrep. But it seems you’re not in the frame of mind for that right now. I will leave be and call you in the morning. The team has been ordered home to rest as well. I need to follow my own orders. We all need the time to recoup. Do you need help getting back to the house? I would feel bad if something happened to you if I left you out here like this.” Kami rambled, not sure what else to say.

“Yeah, walk me inside would ya? Too much rum…can’t see straight.” Steve stammered as he rose slowly from the chair, leaning slightly to the side. “I could use a shoulder to lean on right about now.”

“Anytime, Kahuna. I have 2 perfectly good ones I can let you lean on. All you gotta do is ask, you know that!” Kami stated as she led him back to the house.

“Thanks, Kami! That means a lot to me. I am not sure I want the rest of the team to see me like this. Not even Danny. I mean he is my partner and all but sometimes I don’t want him to see my weaknesses. Not sure I want you to see them either actually. God! Why does this shit keep happening to me? I don’t get it. I feel like this was a roundabout way to get back at me for something. Who is after me? Someone is targeting me by going after people I care about, I know it. I just can’t think of who it could be right now. My brain is way too fuzzy.” Steve rambled on. Kami was paying attention to every detail though. Her gut had been telling her all along that something wasn’t adding up in this investigation. Now she thinks she has the link.

“Ok big guy, time to get you to bed.”

“So now you are going to take advantage of me in my present messed up state of mind, uh? I would expect that of Danno, but not you.” Steve smiled wickedly.

“Steve if I want to take you to bed I would make sure you were sober enough to remember it.”

“Whoa! What? Ok, I really do need to lie down. Did I hear you correctly? You want me that badly uh? Wow! I better step up my game then.” Steve kept babbling as she steered him to his bedroom. She was trying to be professional with him in this state but it was becoming really difficult. She was attracted to him that was a fact. Who wouldn’t be? But he was also her boss and that made it so wrong on so many levels, didn’t it?

“Ok brah, time to go to sleep. I will catch up with you in the morning when you are sober. Sweet dreams Kahuna.” She said as she slowly backed out of his room, silently wishing she could slip into the bed next to him for so many reasons. She did need to get some rest herself, but not before she made a few calls.

~~~~

The team staggered into HQ a few at a time the next morning. Sleep was a hard commodity to come by these days, but when you were so worn out, you do finally succumb to it. They all realized at the same time that Kami was already in her office and yelling into her phone. She didn’t look like she got much rest after all. The phone made a loud smack as she hung up.

“Good! You’re all here. Hope you all got some rest. We have a few leads we need to chase down.” Kami said as she started tossing things up on the main monitor. “It seems my gut was right after all. We have been looking in the wrong places all along. This has nothing to do with Greg being made as an undercover cop, and everything to do with a connection to Steve.”

“What? Steve? What are you talking about?” Danny asked what they were all thinking. “You think Greg was taken out as a warning to Steve? By whom?”

“Yes I do and that is what we need to find out, don’t we? That is our job isn’t it?” Kami snapped back.

Kami assigned the team with leads to follow up on as she took Danny over to Steve’s to check up on him. After last night she was not sure how to approach him. She was hoping he had been too out of it to remember their conversation as she helped him to bed. She didn’t want to dance around that issue right now. She needed to concentrate on the job at hand and worry about the other stuff later. They found him back on the beach where she had found him last night. She just hoped he wasn’t drowning himself in another bottle of rum.

“Morning Kahuna!” Kami called as she and Danny strode up to him. Steve turned his head and looked at them with red rimmed eyes. He was hung over and had been crying but he was trying to cover it up with a small smile.

“Morning guys. Anything new?” he asked expectantly.

“Yes and no. We have a few new leads we are chasing down but nothing concrete yet.” Kami explained.

“Yeah, we are going on her gut feeling on this. I just hope it doesn’t lead us to the local health food shop.” Danny joked, trying to lighten the mood. When he got twin glares back from his partners he just shrugged. “What? Sheesh! You 2 are so grumpy in the morning. You want some coffee or something, cuz I could go get some?” he tried back pedaling out of that one. He was rewarded with yet another set of glares. “Ok, ok! I give up! Have you been giving her training or something? She is acting more and more like you every day. It’s like Steve is the evil Emperor and Kami is Darth Vader.” Danny tried again at a joke.

“Yeah and what does that make you, Luke Skywalker?” Kami shot back.

“Ha Ha! Touché! Ok, well we have actual work to do. Steve, we will call you as soon as we know something. Kami, let’s go get us a few bad guys to beat up or something.” Danny said seriously as he turned to go. Kami gave Steve a reassuring smile before following her partner to the car. It seems Steve didn’t recall the situation last night or he just chose not to bring it up right now. Either way Kami had other things to worry about right now.

They got a call from Ano as they were leaving Steve’s place. He had another new lead for them to follow up on. They were going to have a busy morning it seemed. They picked Ano up from HQ on the way to the heliport. They needed to do an island hop and luckily they had a pilot in the ranks.

“Seriously? Ano is gonna drive that thing? Are you trying to get me killed?  Something else Steve has been training you at I see.” Danny whined.

“Yes, yes, no and I am not telling.” Kami answered with a smirk on her face.

When the trio landed on Maui, a loaner truck was waiting for them.

“Wow, what service!” Ano commented as they climbed in.

“I guess working on Five-O has its perks, right Danny?” Kami smiled in his direction. He was still all clenched from their helo ride. He was not a fan of heights or flying for that matter, let alone a small aircraft like the one they were just in. He was convinced Kami and Steve were gonna be the death of him. All he could do was force a laugh back at Kami as she drove them to find the suspect they were chasing down.

They had ID’d the fingerprints found at the murder scene. Seems the suspect was a known drug runner that Greg was working with from the gang. They had tracked him down to one of the gangs hiding spots. Kami was in the mood for a little ass kicking right about now. But first they had to sit on the place to get a sitrep. They staked out the hide out for a few hours.

“It seems to be a very active hiding spot. Looks like they are doing business on a consistent basis. We gotta draw this fool out.” Kami observes.

“You want me to go in like I am a client?” Danny asked.

Kami looked at him with a smile on her face. “Brah, you might as well paint a bull’s eye on your forehead and yell ‘I am a cop!’ as you walk up to the door.” Kami giggled.

“Ouch! I am hurt! What? You don’t think I could pull this off?” Danny looked angrily at Kami.

“I am sure if properly dressed and prepared, you could pull it off. But right now I don’t think a crazy looking haole going in there will work.” She shot back.

“So, what? A crazy haole girl going in there is a better idea?”

“No, neither of us will go. Ano will. He’s done this before and I know he will be able to handle it.” Kami glanced back at Ano who had been getting ready the whole time that the two in the front seat had been bickering. Ano just smiled at Kami and popped out the back door. He knew his partner well enough by now, even if he hadn’t been working really closely with her as of late. He has been itching to get back in the action and now that he was healed this was the perfect time to prove himself.

Kami and Danny watched from their hiding spot as Ano made his way up to the house. He made himself look like a junkie jonesing for a hit. He played his part well. He sent the signal Kami was looking for to move in on his position. The ruse worked and they took their drug runner down with only a slight struggle. Kami had wanted to beat him to a pulp on the spot but Danny had stopped her, sort of. She knew he wouldn’t be willing to talk so she needed to prod him a little.

“What are you doing? You can’t chain him up like an animal, no matter how much he deserves it!” Danny exclaimed while flailing his arms at her. Kami ignored him and continued to chain the fool to the back of the truck. Ano jumped in the back to keep an eye on him.

“Are you coming Danny?” Kami asked as she jumped into the driver’s seat.

“Kami! What the fuck do you think you are doing? You can’t do this! Why do I even try to stop you? Seriously! You are so taking lessons from Steve! Or maybe you are channeling him or something!” Danny continued to rant as Kami took off.

She was driving at a decent clip on rough dirt roads. Not so fast as to drag the fucker, just enough to make him run. She kept an eye on Ano in the rearview for a sign to stop. She was ignoring Danny’s constant ranting next to her. After about 20 minutes or so, Ano signaled for her to stop. They had made their way up to a nice secluded cliff.

Kami slammed her door as she jumped out of the truck. Danny figured she had a plan and knew what she was doing, or not. He was tired of trying to stop her when she was like this. She was so much like Steve it was scary! He didn’t know who he was afraid of more.

“So Marco, you ready to talk yet? Cuz I could keep going. We have a few more miles yet to go before we get back to a town. It really is such a nice drive up here.” Kami glared at their suspect like he was a bug needing squashing. She took a drink of water from her bottle and teased him with it. He was eyeing the water as he was trying to catch his breath. “I want to know who you work for brah, and not just your LT. I want the name of the Big Kahuna at the top. If I don’t have that name in 10 seconds we go for another drive. Maybe we could go a little faster this time though. I have all day.” She stated as she looked at her watch. “Five…six…seven, I don’t hear a name Marco. I want a name now! Time’s up!” Kami started back to the front of the truck. Marco wasn’t talking so she and Danny climbed in and started up the truck and put it into gear.

“OK!” Marco yelled. “I will tell you what you want to know.” Kami smiled at Danny as they climbed back out of the truck. He did not like this at all. She was gonna be such a bitch to live with after this.

Marco had insisted on a few conditions before he spoke. He figured he could get out of more running if he played his cards right. Boy was he in for a surprise.

Back at HQ, Chin and Kono had been busy on their leads as well. Kami and Danny deposited their guest into a holding cell to chill out for a bit. He looked pretty smug with himself when Kami led him into the cell. She just glared at him and left him thinking up ways to get back at her.

Kami and Danny did a con call with Steve to keep him up to date on their progress. Steve was spinning his wheels at home. He hated not being able to help. They promised him a quick resolution to the case. They all wanted to get this fucker ASAP!!

~~~~

What Steve didn’t expect right now was a visit from Mary. She showed up out of nowhere after months of absence.

“Mary, what the heck are you doing here?” Steve gives her a big hug hello.

“I am sorry I haven’t been here for you big brother! It’s been complicated. But I am here now and I want to help. I know I am not a cop but I can still look after my brother, right?” Mary rambled on. Steve didn’t know what to say so he just hugged her and walked her into the living room. They sat and talked for hours about so many things. They needed each other more than either was willing to admit. He was glad to have her there even as he was mad at her for waiting so long to come back home. Sometimes family was the hardest thing to figure out.

~~TBC~~

Things Always Happen for a Reason  - Pt 4/4