BONDS
Written by
March 1969
=======================
Scribbling
notes on the margin of a report, Steve McGarrett wondered if he or anyone else
would be able to read the scrawls in the future. He was in a hurry as usual. A little more agitated than normal, his emotions were transferred to the page on a
subliminal level.
Meeting
government representatives did this to him.
Today was the culmination of a verbal and administrative wrestling match
he had lost. Not with good grace,
either. He really hated coming in second
to the FBI. It shouldn’t
be a power struggle or a contest, but it always was when dealing with the
Feds. When were they going to learn this
was HIS rock and they were just visitors?
Sure,
The
latest case was one he finally -- grudgingly -- stepped aside for only because
of the severity of the crimes. The rough
and lethal Thore brothers were heroin smugglers who
were caught red handed here. Five-0 was
in the midst of linking them to the deaths of two addicts when the Feds moved
in and claimed priority. The Thores were wanted from
Steve
thought it a dangerous precedent to allow the FBI to win this. While he agreed in principle that the
multiple murders across state lines did fall into their jurisdiction, he had
caught them and could make a case for murder here. Possession being a key factor here, he did
not want to back down for the government.
They might get the idea they could waltz over here to
Scribbling
another note McGarrett closed the file and glanced at the clock. The Feds should be here any minute. He was going to take final statements, finish
the paper work and send the Thores on their way.
Of
course, if the mood struck him, he could blame Danno for all of this. The young
second-in-command had been the voice of reason to convince him this was not the
right fight to pick with the FBI. Not
often swayed from a stubborn stance, Steve had come to recognize, through
persistent persuasion, that this was not an important enough battle. He would let the FBI win here. This time.
The
memory of the debate with Williams amused him and he swiveled back to stare out
at the lush grounds of the Palace, eyes almost aching from the brightness of
the Saturday afternoon sun baking the spring flowers, lawns and trees. It was a perfect day -- as most of them were
in paradise -- to be out there enjoying
While
McGarrett was the driving force in pursuing and catching the Thores, Williams remained in the background, spearheading
an embezzlement investigation, coordinating Kamehameha
Day security with the Governor’s office, and keeping tabs on
the administrative duties around the office.
Yesterday, Williams was worn out and looking
ragged so Steve magnanimously offered him the Saturday off. The staff worked regular office hours and
days, but the detectives were expected to put in a six day
week at least. Days off were rotated,
Chin the family man usually receiving unwritten priority, but that didn’t
always happen depending on the crisis, and Danny, then McGarrett, were the last
to enjoy a holiday.
Underlying
his motivations with the day off, of course, was the unspoken acknowledgement
that McGarrett doubted Williams was really up to Five-0 work standards. Only two months ago, Danno had
been shot and held hostage. {episode -- KING OF THE
HILL} Steve wasn’t sure
the recovery was complete from the stomach wound and extreme blood loss, but
when Williams insisted on coming back to work as quickly as possible Steve had
acquiesced. He wanted his right-hand man
back of course, but not at the expense of Dan’s health. Then Williams had carried the load of Five-0
last month when Steve was so wrapped up in his nephew’s death and going after
the woman he held responsible. {episode -- ONCE UPON A
TIME}
So Danno
got this Saturday off, while McGarrett locked horns with the FBI. Well, he’d make up
for it. Maybe he’d
make Dan help him restore that horrible old boat he’d been willed. The next time both of them had the day off at
the same time, of course. Maybe one Sunday next month?
The
intercom buzzed and Steve acknowledged it.
May announced the FBI man Fischer was here with one of the
prisoners. He told them to come
through. Standing, he pushed away all
frivolous thoughts of days off and ground his teeth in expectation of the
difficult afternoon.
Agent
Fischer was a standard-issue G-Man.
Short-cropped dark brown hair, piercing hazel eyes; sober blue suit,
thin blue tie..
He had a grip on the shorter, thinner prisoner that looked like it could
break bones. And
the captive -- handcuffed Lionel Thore -- seemed
anything but a multiple murderer.
Unshaven, skinny, under six-feet, the eldest Thore
brother looked like a high school teacher on vacation.
May
followed them in and took a seat next to McGarrett’s desk. She took dictation as Steve gave an opening
statement and Fischer followed with his own comments. Before they could finish with Fischer, there
was a knock at the door. It shouldn’t be the other Thore
brother yet. The second agent -- Harte -- was holding Jeff Thore
downstairs in an interrogation room.
Irritated, Steve crossed the room to see who was disturbing them.
Just
before he reached for the knob, the door opened and the last person in the
world he expected to see flounced into the room.
“Steve! Surprise!”
Gasping,
falling back a few steps, McGarrett was speechless as his sister, Mary Ann,
flew into his arms and tightly hugged him.
Following behind came her more subdued husband, Tom Whalen, (obligatory
flower leis on their necks) whose expression assured this surprise was not his
idea in a million years and he was uncertain of the reception this was going to
get from big brother Steve.
As if
knowing what the men were silently telegraphing, Mary Ann pulled back slightly
and laughed. “Tom warned me this was a
bad idea, but I just couldn’t resist, Steve.
I missed you so much. And Tom got an unexpected week off. So where else should we be but here with my
wonderful brother.” She hugged him
again. “It’s kind of a second honeymoon
for us, Steve. It’s
something we really needed. You’re not
mad, are you?”
“Of
course not,” he mumbled, still rocked at the unexpected arrival of his sister
and brother-in-law. “But, sis, this is
kind of a bad time.” For the first time
he glanced around. Fischer was
perturbed. May was amused. Thore was
smiling. The prisoner’s attitude raked
against his nerves and Steve pushed Mary Ann and Tom to the side of the
office. At her stormy look, he knew he’d said exactly the wrong thing. “But it’s always great to see you both,” he
smiled convincingly and gave her another hug, shaking Tom’s hand in a physical
show of his sincerity.
It had
been only a month ago that Mary Ann and Tom had lost their only son. Steve’s commiseration gift -- at first fought
and misunderstood by his grieving sister -- had been to prosecute the doctor
who treated little baby Tommy. The
doctor was convicted of malpractice and other
crimes. Steve and Mary Ann had patched
things up. He had called her a few times
since, but after coming back from LA he had slipped
back into work as usual with hardly a thought to matters outside of
Five-0.
That was
always how his relationship with Mary Ann had been -- a bit long distance, but
loving. He didn’t
know how else to be a big brother. After
their father died he had continued with high school
and worked odd-jobs to help out their struggling, widowed mother. Then into the Navy, during which time their
mother died and Mary Ann grew up. Then
Five-0 and Mary Ann married Tom. Following the birth, then death, of the baby. Steve didn’t know
how else to react, and he suddenly realized, with this unexpected appearance,
that somewhere along the line he had not done a very good job of being a big
brother.
“We’ll
only be here on
“No, no,
just -- well, I’m in the middle of something right now. Do you think you could wait in the office out
there just for a little while? Or,
better yet, you want to drop in at my apartment --“
“No, we
have a hotel down in
“You know
it’s Saturday, Steve,” Mary Ann chided quietly. “We thought you’d be working, but could maybe
take some time off. Where’s
that amazing assistant you keep raving about?
Can’t Danny take care of things?”
Danny take care of things.
Yeah, that was his perfect job description and that was exactly what the
surfer/detective was going to do right now.
Danno knew just about everything there was to know about Mary Ann and
Tom because of the illness and death of Tommy.
Steve had leaned on his friend like he had
never done before with anyone during that horrible crisis. Steve had suffered loss, sudden death of
loved ones and combat. But seeing his sister and brother-in-law hurt with the
terminal illness and death of their only child -- it had ripped Steve apart
like nothing else that had ever happened.
When he
thought he was going to lose Danno in that hostage crisis, it had been
different, and in a way, just as agonizing as Mary Ann’s, Tom’s and even his
own suffering. A
similar kind of pain, almost on the same level as he had felt with the hurts of
his own family. It was always
harder to take when someone he loved hurt.
It was strangely easier to bear when he was the one in jeopardy. Being a man of action, he hated the
helplessness when others agonized and he could do nothing.
May, who
had often talked to Mary Ann on the phone, and met her a few times in years
past, came over and saved the day. She
suggested Steve visit with his family in the outer office while she took Thore’s statement.
Steve shepherded them out the door and closed it behind him, leading his
relations into Dan’s nearby cubicle.
Kono and Chin were by the coffee stand and also
chatted with the Whalens.
“Well, it seems the only one we’re missing is the new kid. Where is the amazing Detective Williams? You use his name in practically every other sentence when we talk; I thought he never left the office. Just like you,” she mildly accused.
Not
commenting specifically on her flippant and probably accurate remarks, he
responded, “He’s going to be here soon enough.”
Calling
dispatch, McGarrett asked whatever patrol unit was up on the
Fischer, Thore and May exited his office. Steve went in with his family and while Mary
Ann discussed dinner plans he furiously rearranged his
schedule in his head, trying to fit this new element into his already packed
day.
**********
Not up to
surfing for long after his recent brush with death, Danny Williams still pushed
the limits of his physical stamina.
Drawn to the sea all his life, he could not go for long without enjoying
the natural benefits of his paradise.
The waves at Waimea were almost ten feet and
coming in strong. He had been out on a
few small ones and felt ready to challenge the stiffer sets. Steve would probably not be happy about his
idea of a day off. And
if he injured himself he would be in big trouble. After taking so much medical leave after his
shooting, he didn’t want to cause Five-0 any more
problems because he couldn’t pull his share of the load. Still, the waves were compelling and if he
was careful he could avoid a wipe out and still have a
great day out here, and then get a decent night’s sleep. If he came back to the office injured and
worn out, Steve was not going to give him another vacation day for a year!
“Hey,
Danny!”
Williams
looked over and saw Patrolman Paul Nakamura walking toward him. Dan came to his feet, already knowing all his
concerns were academic. Looked like his
day off was terminated.
“Hey,
Paul. What’s up?”
“McGarrett
wants you back at the office, wikiwiki. His words,
not mine.”
With
knowing resignation, Dan grabbed his beach mat, towel and board and trudged up
to the parking lot with the officer.
After putting his board in his pick up truck, he used the squad car’s
radio to contact Five-0. May answered
his call.
“Hi,
Danny. The boss man wants you back here.”
“Yeah, I
heard. Do you think I have time to
change?”
“Come as
you are.” She sounded entirely too
cheerful. “Whatever you’re wearing is
just fine.”
“What’s
going on?”
“You’ll
see.”
After
signing off, he grabbed his Aloha shirt out of the cab and dusted off his sandy
feet to slip on his sandals. What could
require his presence at the office where he wouldn’t
be required in the standard-issue uniform of Five-0 -- a shirt, tie and
suit? Intrigued at the mysterious
summons, he jumped in the truck and headed back toward
**********
With
details completed about dinner and a few activities for the next few days,
Steve felt he should return to his duties.
Chin and Kono were handling the statement with the second Thore brother, Jeff.
But typically, McGarrett did not feel
comfortable leaving his obligations for others to fulfill.
At May’s
desk, Steve, Mary Ann and Tom coordinated a time schedule. Agent Harte and
Jeff Thore were cornered in
Chin’s cubicle finishing the paperwork.
Kono was at his desk on the phone.
Suddenly three armed men with nylon masks ran into the room from the
back.
“Everybody
freeze!” one of them shouted.
The women
cried out. Steve and the other
detectives visibly tensed and restrained from reaching for their weapons. After
receiving quick confirmation from McGarrett, Chin and Kono immediately raised
their hands to indicate they were not a threat to the men. Jeff Thore,
triumphant, grabbed onto Agent Harte’s revolver and
pushed the FBI agent against the wall. Harte was a
muscled man who pushed back and received a slash across the face with the
automatic held by one of the gunmen. The
officers were ordered to disarm and all of them
carefully laid down their revolvers, which were confiscated by another one of
the masked men.
Tom
grabbed Mary Ann and shoved her against the cabinet at their backs. Steve pulled May to her feet and stepped in
front of the group.
“What do
you want?”
“They’re
here for me,” Thore announced, shoving Harte over to the center of the room by Chin and Kono. “Now call up that other FBI man and get my
brother over here. Now!” No one moved.
Thore stepped over a few paces and put his
weapon against Chin’s temple. “Move! And if you
give that agent any warning this Charlie Chan gets blown away.”
Steve
gave May a nod and she nervously dialed down to holding. After the message was delivered
she stepped back behind McGarrett. They were ordered to get into McGarrett’s office to wait. Steve requested, between clenched teeth, that
the women be released. Thore
smashed him across the face.
“No body
gets any favors, McGarrett. I’ll tell
you what’s going to happen and it’s not going to be good for any of you if you
don’t do what I say.”
His lips
smarting, Steve fisted his hands to restrain from fighting back. These were not the odds to try anything, but
he hated the helplessness suddenly trapping him. When the abductors closed his office door he felt like they were imprisoned. Itching to pace, he instead arranged May and
Mary Ann to be in the far corner of the sofa.
The men instinctively crowded in front of them as vain shields. The heavy-set gunman drew out a roll of duct
tape from the baggy pocket of his vest.
Wanting to resist, knowing he could not, Steve understood this was going
to be very unpleasant.
**********
When Danny arrived he wasn’t sure what to
expect as he skipped into the Five-0 offices. Still feeling a little
self-conscious in his surfer togs, very aware of his scruffy, unshaven
appearance, worried about his reception, he was nonplussed to find the outer
area empty.
“Hey, where is everybody?”
Automatically gravitating to the center and seat of power, he
opened McGarrett’s door. So abruptly was he hit with something hard on the
head, then slammed to the ground, the air plunged out of him and his head was
ringing, his vision blurring. Taken
completely by surprise – this was the LAST thing he expected to stroll into --
he caught his breath and assessed the alarming situation. Quickly taking in the scene from his position
on the floor, he realized his friends -- and now he -- were hostages. Restrained with duct tape, the Five-0 staff
and a few others were in various bound positions at the far end of the room.
Receiving a fast visual that Steve and the rest of the team were
okay, he receded from the edge of panic. Steve gave him a look that he read to
mean stay cool. Not hard to do when they
were at such a disadvantage.
“Who’re you?” The heavier set man of the trio demanded viciously
as he pointed an automatic pistol in Dan’s face.
The question gave him pause.
Deciding it was best not to be a cop right now, he responded in a scared
and hesitant voice. “I -- I’m the courier – I’m supposed to pick up a package
from Mr. McGarrett.” Maybe being on the
outside and not a perceived threat would give him an advantage.
The man with the gun eyed the young man still partially sprawled
on the floor. It gave Dan a chance to study his companions. The couple behind
Steve -- they looked like Steve’s sister and her husband? What were they doing here? Was that the reason he had
been summoned back? This didn’t make sense -- any of it!
What made the ominous situation really sink in was his friend.
McGarrett’s jaw was swollen and blood was smeared on
the side of his mouth. It made Williams
understand the gravity of their plight and that Steve had already tried to do
something heroic. Dan felt like trying
the same thing, but knew, for the moment, it was hopeless. Better to wait and see about his chances
later.
Seeing that Steve was tautly controlled, Dan knew that McGarrett
had to be livid on the inside. His entire team AND his sister and her husband
were being held at gunpoint by armed thugs. The blue eyes that he had come to
read well, the tight muscles, the set jaw -- it all interpreted ultimate danger
emanating from McGarrett These thugs
didn’t know that they had a vaguely harnessed volcano about to erupt, like
Kilauea, right under their feet if they weren’t careful. The thought was almost comical, except that
he knew Steve so well. The Irish temper
would not abide this kind of treatment to his friends and his ohana. Not for long. Steve might do something rash that might get
him killed. Furiously, Danny tried to think of something
HE could do to forestall his friend’s heroics.
In his swim trunks and Aloha shirt, Dan looked more the part a
courier than the second-in-command of the state
police. His argument seemed
convincing. After what seemed to be an
eternity-long pause, he saw the man lower his weapon and back away slightly.
“Well, there ain’t gonna
be no pickup today. Sit over there against the wall, and don’t
move. You do what I say and you won’t get hurt!”
Knowing the lives of everyone in the room could depend upon him
remaining untied, Dan quickly pulled himself together
and backed against the wall without ever getting to his feet. His head was
still swimming from the blow he took when he first entered the room and he was
grateful for the chance to rest out of the line of action. He leaned back, trying to keep his eyes open,
but he had to squint against the pain from the blow to his head.
Studying his fellow prisoners, Dan felt sympathetic and sorry for
Mary Ann and Tom. They were visibly horrified at the situation and cowered on
the couch, their hands and feet taped.
May was scared, but had been exposed enough to
the criminal element that it must have helped her keep a cool head. The cops in
the room were bubbling with frustration.
Every once in a while one of them would brush
eye contact with him. Their faces calmed
in that instant, realizing that only they knew that Dan was not a courier.
**********
Before anyone could really come up with a significant plan, they heard a commotion in the outer office. The biggest thug grabbed McGarrett and
ordered him to call out to the FBI Agent Fischer and Lionel Thore.
Steve had only seconds to think of an angle that would help them. Danno, of course, thanks to his quick thinking,
was their single asset. Now maybe Steve
could do something. It was a risk with
all these hostages -- the people he loved most in the entire world were within
these walls. He could do nothing to
jeopardize them. But
neither could he allow these criminals to control them. Some, if not all of his friends would
probably die today if he didn’t take some kind of
action to thwart the gunmen.
The thug pressed the pistol to Steve’s throat, making it hard to
breathe let alone talk. He pushed it
away and the man angered instantly, throwing a smashing backhand across Steve’s
face. The blow threw him into the door
with a crash. Steve pushed away the
pistol that was about to connect again with his face. The weapon struck the solid wood and
discharged with a mighty crack.
One of the other thugs grabbed McGarrett and flung him to the
floor, where he collided with Williams.
“Stay cool, Danno,” he whispered urgently.
“You, too!” Williams hissed back, clearly upset at the events.
The excitable criminal opened the door. He was flung back, shot in the chest, and
dropped to the floor at the same instant they heard the gunshot from the outer
office.
“This is the FBI. Surrender your weapons!”
“This is Jeff Thore,” the mastermind of
the operation announced as he checked on his fallen comrade.
The wounded man was moaning loudly, curled in pain not far from
McGarrett. Bleeding from the chest and
back, the man had taken a tearing bullet that left him bleeding heavily.
“We have hostages in here!
Now give me my brother or I start killing an FBI agent and cops!”
No reply. Steve knew Agent Fischer was a tough guy. Would he negotiate? What if he didn’t? Steve was not going to sit by and watch his
friends -- his family -- murdered! What
if he was chosen first? He glanced over at Williams, who was eyeing
him with an unnerving expression. A
familiar look of faith and expectation -- knowing Steve was going to do
something brilliant at any moment and Danno was prepared to follow, then in
wait to issue praise for whatever that idea might be. The glance was only
momentary, but it fueled him with determination to do something quickly. If he
was one of the first hostages threatened, Danno was going to do something
stupid and heroic to save him. He wasn’t going to let that happen.
Jeff Thore, impatient and angry, fired a
number of rounds through the door. Then
he ordered one of his men to open it again.
Reluctantly, the man did as bidden.
He turned back, incredulously reporting the outer office was empty! There was no one out there listening to their demands!
“They’re gonna try and hem us in,” Jeff
growled, pulling McGarrett up to his knees by his shirt collar. He placed a pistol between his eyes. “What are they going to do, top cop?”
“They’re going to surround this building so you’ll have to
surrender,” he snapped back. “They’re
not going to negotiate. You’re never
getting your brother so you might as well give up.”
Thore slugged him and sent him back to the floor. Williams made a move to interfere and McGarrett
quickly scrambled to his feet to distract the gunmen from his colleague.
“Give it up.”
Thore pushed McGarrett to the wall.
“I don’t think so. We’re getting
out while we can.” The burley guy started to protest, but Thore
overrode him. “We’ll go somewhere
safer. Then we’ll come back for Lionel.”
“What do we do with them?
Kill em?”
Thore’s pistol pressed against Steve’s chest. “As much as I’d like to, that would make it
too hot.” He pushed McGarrett back
harshly into the chair, and moved to the “courier” on the floor. He grabbed
onto Williams and yanked him to his feet.
“We’ll take civilians. They’re less trouble.
And hero cops won’t do anything to hurt
civilians. Especially women.”
Thore nodded toward May and Mary Ann. One thug each crossed the room
and grabbed the women, who struggled and fought against the abduction.
“No!” McGarrett denied.
Steve lunged forward and had his knees kicked out from under
him. Then Thore
grabbed Mary Ann and put the pistol to her head, threatening to shoot her first
if there was any more resistance from the cops.
The women had the tape on their ankles cut so they were mobile.
While the burley guy made a point of
roughly securing William’s wrists with the tape, he studied his prisoner. Eyes narrowing, he asked, “You’re not a
hero, are ya, kid?”
Dan, who’d been assessing the
twice-his-size brute, averted his eyes as he replied, “No- no, Mister.”
Dan managed a glance at Steve, who saw the frightening momentary
flash of anger in his friend’s face before it disappeared behind a scared mask.
Thore let out a brief laugh, “Good! A respectful
hostage!” With a flick of his head, he motioned to Burley, who shoved
Williams out the door in front of him. Thore kept the
weapon on teary Mary Ann and threatened the remaining officers that if they
followed the escapees out of the office the hostages would be
shot without hesitation.
With a final victorious sneer at the helpless law enforcement
personnel, Thore, his hand wrapped tightly around the
back of Mary Ann neck, yanked her roughly towards him and disappeared out the
door. The men in the room were on their
feet instantly, helping to free each other of their bonds. Tom was yelling and agonizing over the
kidnapping of his wife. Steve, horror-stricken and enraged, watched the small,
armed party disappear.
**********
It had taken all of Dan’s resolve to NOT react
to the brutalizing he had witnessed. The thugs beating up on Steve had just
about pushed him over the limit. Steve’s warning
glares had stopped him, but just barely. Thankfully, Steve was now safe. But not his sister!
Now, as they rushed through the back halls of the Palace, Danny
was desperately trying to think of a way to save Mary Ann and May. Jeff Thore had Mary
Ann in a tight arm lock with the pistol still at her throat. Almost no chance of saving
her. May, however, was being dragged alongside him, just held by the
arm, as he was, by the medium-sized bad guy.
Fortunately, Dan had been deemed less-than-threatening, so the big mean monster
had left “his” hostage with his partner and moved up ahead to act as the scout.
In the few moments he had to plan this spontaneous escape, he knew
the best chances were if May went on her own and he
stayed behind to intercept the thugs.
Besides, if he tried to escape, there would be nobody left to help Mary
Ann. He had the opportunity to save only
May, but he might be able to do something for Steve’s sister – if the bad guys let him live that long.
As they rounded the final landing and trotted down the stairs to
the main floor, Dan’s heart beat faster when he saw the big guy
turn right and head toward the back of the Palace.
As he turned the corner he held his foot
back and caused their captor to trip.
The guy sprawled to the floor along with Danny
and May. Expecting the tumble, Dan
kicked the man in the face and helped May up on her feet, shoving her around
the staircase and to the other side where a narrow door led to the basement. He opened the door, shoved her through and
slammed the door behind her.
Seconds later, before he could turn completely around, he was
smashed in the back of the head, the side of his face impacting
with the solid koa door. He slid to the floor, his
vision and senses mostly black. He felt
sick, dizzy and disoriented. Then
realized part of the problem was he was being carried
away.
**********
As he frantically worked on unpeeling the tape on his ankles,
McGarrett heard gunshots from outside.
Heart in his throat, he finally freed his feet and raced out of the
office, flying down the front steps in blind desperation. He was unarmed and rushing into certain
danger, but he was not going to stand back while his sister and friends were being used as shields.
Who was shooting? Did Fischer or
some over-zealous HPD man decide to start a war? If any of the hostages were hurt, he would
have someone’s head!
Landing on the wood floor in a running turn, he skidded to a stop
when he heard sobbing from around the corner.
Warily, he peered around and saw May leaning against the door of the
basement. When she saw him she yelped and stumbled into his arms. Anxious to get outside, he did not have time
to offer comfort.
“What happened?” he asked as he pushed her against the wall for
added support.
“Danny shoved me in here.
He saved me.”
It was no surprise and the heroic act undoubtedly had
consequences. Nothing obvious like Danno’s body, thankfully.
“I’ll be right back.” He
ran over to the back doors, which were wide open, and cautiously peered
out. He spotted a uniformed body in the
parking lot. Yelling and running feet
behind him alerted him to reinforcements.
He turned as Fischer joined him.
“They got away in a squad car.
Took down a couple of cops.”
Steve glanced back, only seeing one body. Some HPD men had arrived to help the injured
officer. A lot had happened in the
critical moments he was stuck up in the office.
Too much unseen and unknown.
“The hostages?”
“Saw a woman and someone who looked unconscious shoved into the
car.”
“And you didn’t stop them?”
“Fire on the hostages?”
“Take out a tire!” McGarrett shouted. “Take out the driver!”
The rage and frustration of the crisis was almost unbearable for
Steve. He didn’t
care if he exploded at the FBI or anyone else.
He didn’t have time for their attitudes right
now. In the back of his mind, he thought
he should probably take a little care to keep his cool for Tom’s sake. This was hard enough on his brother-in-law
without Steve tearing apart at the seams.
But the emotions could not be completely bottled. It always happened this way when Danno was in
danger. He flipped out -- there was no
other description suitable. And he didn’t foresee much change with this horrible ordeal.
“Wasn’t close enough,
McGarrett, sorry. Who are they?”
“Only my sister and my second-in-command,” he viciously bit
back. “Have you got somebody on their
tail?”
“Didn’t have time.”
Chin, Kono and Tom joined them and he issued orders for an APB on
the stolen squad car. Also
for his officers to track down any known associates of the Thore
brothers on the islands. Then
they were to seal off all exits -- land, sea and air --from this rock.
He tried to take a minute to console Tom, who was pale-white with
shock and sick with fear. He was not a cop, he was not used to this kind of terror inflicted on his
family.
Steve faced danger every day and he could not admit that this had
him on the raw edge of terror as well.
His option was to give in or fight back.
Following his nature, he would do battle with anyone and everyone and could not succumb
to the emotions. He had to keep
functioning. Aggressive, offensive assertiveness and
working on this personally, was the best way to save Mary Ann and Danno.
“We’re going to get them back, Tom. I promise.
Mary Ann is going to be fine. That’s Danny Williams with her. I’d bet my life that he would not let
anything happen to her.”
As he spoke them, the words were more than just shallow
platitudes. He was certain, and afraid,
that Danno would do anything to save
Mary Ann. Just as he
had saved May. Noting the
secretary was still there, he walked over and put an
arm around her shoulder.
He asked the question upper most in his mind right now about his
young detective. “Do you know what
happened to Danno after he saved you?”
May bit her lip and struggled to stop the tears
that were still trickling down her face. “Just after he shut the
door I heard something hit it. Hard. And it sounded
like Danny cried out.” She hesitated and
he nodded for her to continue. “I think
they hurt him.”
He knew it already, expected it, but her surmise made his skin
chill. What retaliation would they
choose against Danno after his heroics? Hopefully, they would keep him alive. Or maybe, they would
just figure they needed only one hostage? No, then they would have left his body
here. They still had plans for two
hostages. But
that didn’t mean that the foolish, impulsive one was going to be
undamaged. He just had to hope his young
friend would not do anything stupidly heroic.
Again.
He shoved that thought aside, knowing that was a pretty ridiculous and
vain hope when considering Danno’s impetuous temper and history.
**********
The world
turned grey for the detective as the Burley thug collected Dan by his
mid-section and trotted after the others, with the bound man draped head and
arms dangling downward under his thick trunk-of-an-arm. Dan’s head felt ready
to explode as gravity drew the blood downward into the vessels in his head. His
diaphragm was compressed upward into his lungs, so
deep breathing was not an option. A cacophony of panicky noises – gunfire,
shouting, somebody – poor Mary Ann he thought – crying. The journey down the
narrow back steps was jarring and painful.
His body hit the stairway and doors roughly a few times
as his indifferent porter stumbled through the escape.
The air
became cooler suddenly, and Dan was peripherally aware that they’d
managed to get out of the palace. While dismayed on some level that the
criminals had not yet been subdued, the breeze allowed to Dan to take in air a
little better and, with that, he felt some small measure of relief. A few more jarring steps, and then running, before the group
reached their escape vehicle.
“Get in there
and shut up!” The voice spat, and then continued, “Open the trunk! Hurry!”
Dan could
feel his captor’s hold loosening slightly as he tossed him roughly into the
trunk of the car. His body landed unceremoniously on a tire iron. The sharp pain to his rib cage was rapidly overridden by an
agonizing blow to the back of his head. With that
the noise rapidly subsided for Dan. Silence and darkness enveloped him as the
trunk lid slammed shut.
**********
Before
Steve could issue more instructions to his men, Harte
informed him that the wounded man had been taken into
Federal custody. He would be at a prison
hospital and Lionel Thore would be under lock and key
as well. Steve lobbied to interrogate
both prisoners and was refused. While Steve longed to throttle the thugs, he
knew when to not fight the government. He demanded to be informed
of all leads, then, and Harte did agree to that. But Steve didn’t
trust him. And
there was no time for the usual jockeying for position in the power-plays that
always existed between Steve and visiting Feds.
This was too critical to be diverted by
inter-agency rivalries.
When he
had the chance, he told Chin to go down to the lab and get Che’s
reports on the weapons and physical evidence left behind. Prints on the tape, the pistols, anything
else the criminals touched. He had Kono
go through HPD and find out who the new prisoner might
be; who the Thore’s liked to work with as gunsels.
Tom
eventually fell asleep on the couch.
Steve kept the phone hot with calls to various sources. It was almost dusk
when May brought in Chinese food and fresh coffee. Tom found it hard to eat and Steve reminded
him they needed to keep up their health to last out the crisis. He had little appetite himself, but had to
set an example. Just as he had always
been the take-charge big brother to Mary Ann, he had to show her husband his
fearless, cool, controlled, domineering side now. He couldn’t allow
his inner fears and doubts to surface.
The thought
of being an example led naturally to remember his years of experience as a big
brother. There had been no time for
relationships outside the little tight-knit family. When in the Navy, he had been too focused on being the perfect cadet, then
officer. No time for
friendships. Then came Five-0;the example, the
boss, the former NI spook who had to prove himself. No one to get close to in
the early years. He had friends,
sure, lots of them. But
never anyone close. Plenty
of people to socialize with; some to trust many to work with, all on varying
levels of cordiality and intimacy.
Then, through
a strange series of events, he had grown fond of a young HPD officer named
Williams. Soon after meeting Williams,
McGarrett absorbed him into the team. And with that new angle within his unit, came an unusual and
unexpected surprise -- a spark -- a bonding -- almost from the beginning.
That was just
the start. The way Williams thought and
reacted and the way he tried so hard to emulate McGarrett solidified the
relationship. It had quickly developed
into a mentor/protégé connection. Now,
after stress, trials and energizing give-and-take, after life-and-death crises
and dull routine police work, he came to look on Danno as his little brother,
even giving him a nickname to solidify the closeness.
In this
hostage catastrophe, the dilemma gave the personal angles a strange
dimension. He was used to worrying about
Danno’s life while on duty -- or off, he reminded grimly, thinking about the
hospital debacle just weeks ago. Now, he
was concerned about Mary Ann’s life ending in a hail of bullets.
As well, he
dreaded anything happening to Danno, just as he had always worried about Mary
Ann after losing his father. Losing
another member of the family would devastate him -- and almost equally, he
feared harm coming to his sister or his adopted brother.
Just now,
especially, Mary Ann was so vulnerable after the death of her son. How was she going to handle this horrible
experience? Physically, Danno was not in
the best of shape. How was he going to hold up to the brutal treatment sure to be leveled at him? As
certainly as the sun came up every morning over
After yet
another futile discussion with Agent Harte, McGarrett
paced the office, wondering what his next move should be. The criminals had been gone for hours. Every minute was a strike against the
hostages. It was a limbo of peril for
his sister and friend. What would Danno
have to do to protect Mary Ann? Hopefully, the criminals were intent on escape and not
harming the hostages.
The phone
rang. Steve answered it and heard Chin’s
triumphant voice with vital information.
The wounded criminal was ID’d
and had a name and a history. And he had an address here on
**********
Dan slowly
became cognizant of the scent of Plumeria blossoms, and then in sharp contrast
to the pleasant smell, the coppery taste of blood in his mouth. He willed his
eyes to open slightly, not moving any other part of his body, partially because
of the pain that seemed to be emanating from places he didn’t
know he could hurt. The other reason was the sense of foreboding with which he
crept back into the land of the conscious. The horrible incident flooded back
into his mind as he focused on his duct-tape-bound hands.
Suddenly,
something shifted next to him, and he looked to his left. Mary Ann was looking
at him, her eye brows furled in fear and concern. Mascara streaked down her face
from now-dry tears. Her lower lip quivered slightly as almost-familiar blue
eyes gazed at him. Dan studied her features, and recognized Steve in her
expression, and for a reason he couldn’t comprehend at
that moment, her presence comforted him.
He realized
that his head had been resting on the now-mangled-and-crushed plumeria lei on
her shoulder. The poor woman, her disheveled red hair now fallen from the bun
that she had so meticulously made that morning, looked exhausted, but did not
appear to be injured – a fact which greatly relieved Dan. He tried to give her
a reassuring smile, but the plan was interrupted by
the sudden eruption of voices not too far off. The detective suddenly realized
they were resting on the deck of a boat – what looked to be a cabin cruiser, no
more than 25 feet long.
They could
see the heads of two of their captors on the forward deck as they laughed
loudly. The raspy, grating voice that Dan recognized as the
younger Thore brother spoke.
“We’ll be in
Trying to
ascertain the whereabouts of the others, he tried to shift to a sitting
position as quietly as he dare. Burley – the one that had made such light work
of manhandling the detective to the getaway car – stood at the aft end of the
boat, his back to the prisoners, possibly watching for signs that they were
being followed. A fourth man stood at the helm, his back also to the pair.
“How many?” Dan
asked in the softest voice he could release.
Mary Ann
glanced at him and wiggled four fingers of her hand. They’d
picked up another guy – apparently the boat’s captain – somewhere along the
way. He began working and twisting at the duct tape, and Mary Ann, observing
what he was doing began to do the same. Of all the responsibilities he’d ever had, the life of Mary Ann Whalen – beloved only
little sister of his boss – his mentor – his friend – weighed on him heavier
than any he could ever remember.
Out at sea
with brutal murderers, bound up with probably a broken rib or two and a
concussion, the situation looked pretty grim. There
was no reason for these brutal men to keep them alive much longer – and the
“How long
have we been at sea?”
Dan saw the
sun was now below the horizon and realized that it had been at least five or
six hours since he walked into the Five-0 offices. He looked over at his
co-prisoner as she looked up to meet his gaze.
She thought
for a moment, and then replied, “A few hours, I think, maybe more – I’m not
sure where we’re going – I’m just a visitor to the islands.”
The last
comment made Dan start a bit. It dawned on him that she did not know who he
was!
Dan had heard
so much about her in the horrible weeks following her son’s death. Steve had uncharacteristically truly needed to talk out his grief,
and Dan had been the perfect listener during that time. After his initial,
awkward reaction to his boss’s surprising emotional outburst and verbal assault
on him the day his nephew died, he berated himself for not having been more supportive right then and there. He still wasn’t
certain what he could have done to ease Steve’s pain, but whatever it was, he
regretted he’d been unable to do anything more than listen without flinching.
After that,
Dan had done his level best to be supportive, but Steve had made it very
difficult after his initial tearful revelation to Dan in the office that
evening. The head of Five-0 put up a shield around himself
that made him seem distant and aloof to everyone – even the young man to whom
he had revealed his tortured soul.
Dan had
decided it was best not to push, but he was determined to be there when the man
they called the Haole Hao – the man of steel – needed
a friend to lean on. He’d
stayed late many evenings in his own office working, just so his boss would
know that he was available to talk or just for company. On other occasions, he
called or stopped by Steve’s apartment offering dinner companionship or a
drive. Sometimes, Steve politely rebuffed him, and other times, he was less
patient. Dan took each rejection in stride, although he did secretly find his
own feelings a little hurt. He had after all come to enjoy the counsel and time
that he alone seemed to rate in the eyes of Steve McGarrett. He’d
even lost his most recent girlfriend over the numerous cancelled dates.
It had been
worth it, Dan thought, especially after a landmark breakthrough one evening
only a few weeks after Williams began his campaign of availability.
==========
The phone rang not twenty seconds
after Dan Williams’ head hit the pillow. His eyes snapped open, and he took a
couple of deep breaths before picking up the phone. He’d
just returned from the scene of a car accident involving a vehicle that he’d
placed on the APB list. His entire evening had been full of on-call-related
activities, and Five-0’s youngest detective had been only too
happy to drop exhausted onto his bed. It’s gonna be one of those nights, he thought to himself as he
moaned out loud.
“Williams,” he said softly into the
receiver as he observed his alarm clock settle on
“Danno…” The familiar voice sounded
strained and tired.
“Steve,” was all the detective said,
half expecting his boss to start rattling off instructions. And
yet, his voice – there was something amiss.
“Busy?”
Dan sat up in bed with that bizarre
inquiry, and ran his hand over the thick, sandy curls that blanketed his head.
“Me? Busy? Nahh. As a matter of fact, I was just thinking of giving you a
ring,” Dan quipped, realizing that his friend must be suffering terribly. “So,
uh, are you up for some company?”
The sigh on the other end of the line
was loud, and then came the reply, “Hmm, yeah, I guess I could put on some
coffee.”
“Good – I’ll be over in a few…” Dan
replied softly and just as casually as if it were a mid-day call instead of one
placed at a time of obvious slumber.
After he hung up, he rubbed his face
with both his hands and swallowed. Remembering the horrific evening
that Steve had broken down in front of him alone, and confessed his anguish
over being the one upon whom everyone leaned. The scene was
burned into Dan’s brain, with the heat of terror. To witness a bedrock, upon which his life was now established, reveal
vulnerability was life changing. With that knowledge
came an epiphany to Dan. It became clear to him that NO human lives without
support. Despite all of the strength this one-of-a-kind legend had, his life
would be better if he knew he could count on somebody – really COUNT on somebody
– to be there for support.
‘Steve needs to lean on someone, Williams, and he’s
chosen you. Don’t screw up’.
As he rolled from the bed, and slipped
back into the khaki slacks and navy blue polo shirt he’d
just folded over a chair, he renewed his resolve to be there for the man that
was there for so many others in their time of need.
The memory of the three hours he spent
at Steve’s, being regaled with the tale of the Whalens gave him the sense that he himself knew them. And he had ached for his friend as Steve had confessed to
being what he considered a less-than-attentive brother in recent years,
visiting only two times since his nephew was born. And now,
little Tommy was dead; the opportunity to make amends was gone. Dan could do
nothing more than listen and empathize, but it had apparently been enough.
==========
Then Steve
began to take him up on his entreaties to join him for dinner. The more time
they spent together, Dan noted the more comfortable Steve became with sharing
his past with him.
And now, here
he sat, next to his friend’s only living flesh and blood, feeling a brotherly
protectiveness for this lovely woman, to whom he was a perfect stranger. Why
she probably wouldn’t recognize his name, much less
think of him as anything more than a hapless courier who had blundered into a
bad situation!
She’s completely
surrounded by strange men – and she counts me among them! The thought disturbed him, and made him all the
more anxious to let her at least know that he was a cop – a stranger, but a
cop.
“We may have
to go for a swim,” Dan breathed, as he glanced toward the man at the wheel.
All of the
creeps seemed to have their guard down at this point, believing their guests
were sheep that would die quietly with barely a bleet
when it was their time.
Mary Ann
trembled and shook her head. “I’d rather be shot.”
Dan flinched,
the painful memory of his recent gunshot wound to his abdomen still too fresh
in his mind. Surprised, he still responded quickly, “No – you wouldn’t.”
The young
man’s tone sounded very authoritative, and almost reminded her of something her
brother would say.
He pressed
the issue because he could see no other way to keep them from getting shot and
their bodies dumped into deep, “We might not have a choice. I’m sorry.”
She
hesitated, and then she looked up at him. “I – I can’t swim.”
Dan would
have been less surprised if she’d told him salt water
would make her melt. Having been born and raised near the ocean, Dan could swim
before he could walk, and the thought that there were people in the world that
were not at home in the water always amazed him.
“You’ll have
to go without me,” she said meekly.
Dan’s voice
started a little louder, but quickly grew quiet again as he remembered their
circumstance. “I’m not going anywhere without you. Now, don’t give up – we’ll
get out of this somehow!”
Pleased and
comforted by the young man’s spirit and supportive tone, she smiled for the
first time in hours. “You sound just like my brother.”
Mary Ann had
no idea of the monumental compliment she had just paid the detective. He felt
himself blushing, and replied, “And just like your brother, I won’t let
anything happen to you.”
She stopped
moving for a moment and looked over at him. She felt better – still scared –
but there was clearly someone in her corner, apparently very determined to help
her make it back to her family.
“Well,
Sleeping Beauty’s awake!”
Jeff Thore’s head was suddenly turned
in their direction. The escapee and his middle-sized henchman edged their way
from the foredeck along the side of the cabin and hopped onto the deck, where
Dan and Mary Ann sat huddled together. Smiling, Thore
looked cordial and friendly as he stepped closer and leaned down to grab the
scared woman’s chin.
Dan reacted
instantly and knocked his hand back. Middleman moved
quickly and kicked him in the chest. He fell back hard against the railing
behind him, gasping in pain.
Thore
laughed, “Oh my, my! The little courier has some guts after all.” His smile
suddenly turned into an unpleasant sneer, “No brains, but guts. Shoot him and dump him.” He nodded at Burley,
who’d observed the scene disinterestedly from his
after perch. Thore continued, his comments now
directed at Mary Ann, “We’ll hang onto to you for an hour or so.” He pulled her
roughly to her feet, and drew her close to his face. “Then I’ll be able to
write a letter to your cop brother about your last hour on earth!”
Rage
over-rode the pain, and Dan sprang forward in a low charge, managing to hit the
startled fiend in the stomach with his shoulder. Thore
cried out in pain and fell backward, slamming his head with homerun hardness
onto the metal trim of the bolted-down captain’s chair.
Burley,
realizing the situation was getting a little out of
hand jumped down onto the deck and looped an anchor chain twice around Dan’s
neck from behind. All of Dan’s efforts to loosen the tape paid off when he was
able to yank his right hand from its sticky bond. Rather than fighting against
the chain, Dan unexpectedly flung himself backward, head butting the thug
behind him. The crunch and the cry of pain told the adrenaline-filled detective
that Burley’s facial bones or cartilage had taken a hit. He pressed his
advantage, and threw himself back again. Both men would have gone over the rail
together, but Middleman grabbed the chain that was still
wrapped around the detective’s neck. Instead, only Burley flipped
overboard into the churning water, and Dan was pulled forward toward Middleman
and the man who’d been at the helm of the vessel.
Thore rose
with difficulty to re-join in the fight, but Mary Ann, the realization hitting
her that they were about to be killed, slipped up behind him and slammed a hard
plastic buoy down onto his head with such force that the already unsteady man
crashed back to the deck. She then retreated from the violent scene being played out before her to the back of the aft fishing
platform. She didn’t think she could do anything else
to help the poor courier as he struggled so valiantly with the others. Incongruously,
her thoughts re-played his entrance into her brother’s office. The poor man
came to collect a package!
‘I bet he never dreamed he would end up in a fight
for his life,’ she mused.
The tension grew inside her as she knew, without
actually thinking the horrifying thought, that she was getting ready to learn
to swim – or die.
The “captain”
rammed the struggling officer in the stomach with both his fists. Dan expelled
what felt like every bit of air in his body as his back slammed into the deck,
but he willed his legs to rise up as the man lunged toward him. The charging figure was caught in the solar plexus by both of Dan’s
feet. The detective pushed and lifted his enraged attacker into the air,
and with a backward summersault motion, Dan managed to toss the man over his
head and onto the anchor that could well have ended up around his neck. Hearing
the crash and the anguished cry, the young man didn’t
wait before struggling to his feet to shake free of the chain.
Thore,
seeing the manic, almost animal-like rage and desperation in the face of his
former prisoner, backed away from the approaching man, considering the best way
to handle this troublemaking courier.
Dan, now
freed from his metal bondage, began his move toward the retreating Thore, when a sharp, hot pain shot through his back. He
turned to see a rapidly recovered and enraged “captain,” who was bleeding from
a large gash that ran from his left nostril almost to his left ear. The 8-inch
diving knife he wielded was wet with blood, and Dan knew just whose blood it
was. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Burley had managed to
climb back into the boat.
Sensing that
Mary Ann was now at the aft end of the boat, not far from the inboard intake,
he backed toward her as three of the four angry men stepped toward him, all now
clearly bent on killing him with their bare hands.
“I thought
you weren’t a hero,” Thore spat venomously at the
slowly retreating detective.
“I might have
been mistaken,” Dan shrugged almost imperceptibly as he replied, his eyes not
leaving the angry trio sliding towards him.
Time for a
swim lesson, Mary Ann, Dan thought as he braced himself for what was likely to
be a rough swim. Backing until he made contact with the trembling woman, and
dizzy with pain, he turned and joined her on the platform. With his left arm
firmly around Mary Ann to guide her, the two plunged into the cool water.
Her
resistance was palpable to Dan, but he knew that she must now know that
possible death in the water would be far preferable to death at the hands of
these fiendish animals.
The
temperature kept him from fainting while he struggled to push them as deep into
the water and as far from the boat as he could. The darkness falling was now a
blessing as he realized that the goons left behind on the boat were firing into
the water. He knew later, the blessing of the night would become a curse.
Mary Ann was
in a full-blown panic, struggling to free herself, and Dan hated what he had to
do, but it was the only way. He firmly clamped his hand over her nose and mouth
to keep her from taking in what was un-breathable around them. His legs were
strong and drove them almost ten feet under the water before he turned sharply
to prevent the shooters from extrapolating their location. His struggling
companion’s hands remained bound, but she still flailed and twisted like a
creature possessed. Dan was determined though to do what had to be done. Releasing her to the surface before the gunfire had
stopped would have meant almost certain death for her.
**********
Burley and
the captain were firing their semi-automatic weapons into the water, not
actually able to aim at anything, when Thore suddenly
grabbed Burley’s hand.
“Hey, STOP!
What are we firing for? There’s no way they’ll make it
to the shore alive – the kid’s bleeding -- if you get my drift.”
The captain,
the gaping wound in his face throbbing and blood
trickling into his mouth and down his chin, looked at his associate – he wasn’t
convinced. He wanted nothing more than to fill the guy
who had done this to him full of holes.
Reading the
man’s mind, Thore pressed, “What more fitting death
than to be eaten alive by sharks, eh?”
The thought
made the wounded man’s lips turn upward. The captain would’ve
laughed, but his face hurt too much. Yeah,
hopefully the sharks will get ‘em
before they drown!
**********
Dan gasped as
he came to the surface. The choppy water was making it impossible to get
oriented, and the stab wound in his back was already making the officer feel
nauseous. And the struggle with Mary Ann had depleted
him for the moment. He could see the white hull of the boat, which was still no
more than fifty feet away, but it appeared that his pursuers were no longer
pursuing. He’d guessed that they knew he wouldn’t make
it back to shore alive anyway. His thoughts turned to Mary Ann Oh, God! Have I
drowned her?? His arm was wrapped around her
shoulders, and he moved her gently to where she was floating on her back., making sure to keep her head above the water. She was
breathing and showed signs of stirring. Dan began speaking gently to her,
reassuring her that they would be fine.
‘If sharks, hypothermia, or blood loss don’t get us first,’ he continued sarcastically to himself.
He tried to
spot land on the horizon, but found it difficult to see more than a hundred
feet. The rolling swells were making it rough to see much of anything from
their sea-level perspective. Next, he looked skyward to see if he could spot a
familiar star, but the sky was overcast. Not even a
hint at where the moon might be.
His head was
throbbing. His vision was blurred and his eyes burned. He cursed to himself in
frustration. DAMN the clouds! DAMN
the waves! DAMN his eyes! DAMN
the pain in his back! Think,
Williams, think! Where do you KNOW you last were? How did we get to the boat?
How long were we really on the boat? Full circle back to DAMN again, he
thought. Maybe we can float until daybreak. Yeah, I should be more buoyant
without blood, his typical gallows humor crept into
his thoughts.
An errant
wave suddenly smacked him in the face, and he coughed to get the liquid out of
his mouth and throat. Mary Ann began to choke as well and suddenly began
struggling to become vertical again.
“Easy, Mary Ann, easy! It’s okay! We made it! We’re okay,” Dan said desperately trying to keep her from flying into an
all-out panic again. He wasn’t sure he had the
strength to prevent her from drowning them both at this point. He continued in
an attempt to keep her calm. “Just relax – I’ve got you, and I won’t let you
get hurt. I promise. Are you with me?”
Still clearly
terrified, she couldn’t stop the tears and sputtering,
and was unable to do much more than kick since her hands were still secured by
the rapidly loosening tape. She studied the face of her partner in misery. His
eyes were calm and his look reassuring and confident.
As soon as he
saw that he had her attention, he spoke again, “Mary Ann, you need to slow your
breathing down and try to relax. You’re hyperventilating, and that’s gonna make you dizzy, so let’s take some slow deep
breaths.” The authority with which the young man spoke calmed her a bit, and
she did her best to slow her breathing.
“You won’t
let go of me?”
“I will not
let go of you.”
“No matter what?”
“No matter what. Now, I don’t want you to be afraid – I’m
going to turn you around so that your back is on my chest. That way, I can get
the tape off your hands. I won’t let go of you, so don’t worry, okay?”
She nodded
timidly and let the detective gently spin her to face away from him. With his
arms under hers for support, he was able to gently peel
the imprisoning tape away from her soft, little, very-un-McGarrett-like hands.
She felt a
little better, more secure, wrapped in this man’s arms. She no longer had the
sense that she was sinking. But she was having trouble
that she was a little embarrassed to voice to a young man that she did not know
– even in such a dire circumstance.
“Umm, I’m
having a little difficulty kicking – it’s my panty hose. They’re slipping.”
The admission
gave Dan pause for not more than a second. “It’ll be easier for you if we get
them off. Can I help you?”
She couldn’t help but smile at the bizarre situation as she
responded, “I don’t see any other way.”
He nodded
even though she couldn’t see him, “I’m gonna turn you back around to face me so that you can put
your hands around my neck. Then, I’m gonna peel them
off, okay?”
“Okay – now
you know, you can’t just tug at them from the toe – you have to start with the
elastic at the – the top,” she instructed as he gently floated her around to
face him.
“I know,” he
said, a shy smile crossed his lips as they’re eyes
met. He’d dealt with panty hose more than once on much
more pleasant occasions than this. “Pardon my hands,” he said as he reached up
under her dress and grabbed the restricting elastic.
He made quick
work of sliding the hose down her legs, with Mary Ann lifting each leg so that
he could reach her toes without taking her head under water – something he was
very careful to avoid. He stuffed the hose in the waistband of his swim trunks,
knowing that they could well come in handy at some point.
“What are we
going to do?” Mary Ann asked, almost as if she thought that Dan must have a
plan. He’d gotten them this far, hadn’t he?
Dan sighed –
he didn’t have a good answer. Here the pair were, floating in the darkness, in a swell-filled ocean,
drizzle falling on their heads. Dan was treading water for both of them,
bleeding from a stab wound to the back that was probably six or seven inches
deep, with no sense as to the direction of the nearest land mass. It seemed
like a lot to overcome to the detective, who wasn’t
entirely certain how badly he was injured. But he
thought of Steve and Tom. They must be going nuts right now with Mary Ann
dragged off by those scum bags! He mused as he looked
down into her expectant eyes. She trusted him with her life, and with that
knowledge, he felt himself somewhat renewed in his determination to see them
through this mess alive. He swore to himself that he would return Mary Ann to
Tom and Steve.
“Well, I – uh
haven’t got all the kinks worked out of my plan, but we’re gonna
be fine,” he responded. How that was going to happen would have to be revealed to him, he hoped, soon. Exhaustion and the fear
of swimming further out to sea made him decide that the best course of action
would be to conserve energy. “First things first.
Let’s talk about buoyancy and why you don’t have to worry about
sinking,” Dan said, only too cognizant of the fact
that he might not be able to stay conscious to keep her floating.
**********
It was
dark when he reached the harbor. The normal spectacular, multi-hued tropical
sunset had been obscured by a mild storm front that
moved in during the course of the afternoon.
Despite the slightly inclement weather, the boats off
Too late to institute a search operation with the Coast Guard,
McGarrett ordered Kono to check the marina authorities for records of
departures. HPD helped interview boat owners at nearby slips, but only a few
were on their boats. Many boats were gone due to the popularity of sunset
sails.
McGarrett
contacted his friend Sergeant Duke Lukela with HPD, and had him bring in a
special team of officers. Sergeant Chip
Malone and his partner Moe -- his four-legged partner -- searched the dock
area. Moe, trained as a K-9 defensive
partner, was also a talented search-and-rescue asset. He reacted to the scents of both Mary Ann and
Williams at the slip. It confirmed
Steve’s fears that his sister and his friend were somewhere aboard a boat in
the Pacific with three hardened murderers.
McGarrett
left Tom asleep on the office couch that night.
Exhausted from frayed nerves and anxiety, McGarrett’s system was still
racing with the passion to find his loved ones.
Outer islands were alerted to the description
of the boat they were looking for. The law enforcement community on Oahu was
still searching, but Steve was guessing they were going somewhere safer, and
maybe catch a plane out of Maui or Kauai -- both close -- and avoid Honolulu
altogether. His men were still going
through details of the Thores’ records, and their
friends.
With no
patience for tedious detail work, Steve went in another direction. Dropping in at the prison hospital, he
bullied his way in for an interview with Taggart Stuart, the wounded
criminal. Harte
and Fischer had failed to leave any documentation banning him from talking with
Stuart. The man was in Federal custody,
but not going anywhere. With the nature
of the crime that had just been perpetrated on Hawaiian soil, McGarrett wasn’t certain he would allow any of them to leave. For the time begin anyway, he had carte
blanche in his opinion.
McGarrett
learned from the doctor that Stuart’s gunshot wound was in the upper
chest. Painful, with a loss of blood,
but not life threatening. As he walked
into the prison ward, McGarrett checked out the other occupied beds at a
glance, mindful of the guard at his back.
He wouldn’t have much time in here. If anyone
reported this to the FBI, he would be yanked out of
here in a flash. Casually, he stood at Stuart’s bedside for a moment, keeping
his body between the guard and the prisoner.
“Stuart.” The command was low, but hard. The man, handcuffed to the bed railing,
snapped his eyes open. “We’re going to
have a little conversation.”
The man
smiled wickedly, showing off several gaps in the teeth. “Yeah, cop?
About what?
I ain’t telling you nothin’. You’re the same as the Feds.
And I don’t talk to stinkin’ cops no matter
what the flavor.”
Edging
closer, McGarrett stood next to the man, eyeing the bandaged chest. “Well I’m not interested in evidence for
court, Stuart. And
I don’t care about your constitutional rights.
Your friends abducted two people from my office today. I intend to get them back in one piece. You’re going to tell
me where Thore and the gang are going. What are their plans? Who are they
meeting? Where are they hiding out? In return, I’ll leave you alone.”
Stuart
laughed. “You think big talk like that
is gonna scare me, cop?”
“No.”
Steve stepped
forward and in a quick movement twisted the bedclothes tightly around Stuart’s
neck. Still shielding his actions from
the guard, he used his right hand to press down on the criminal’s wound. The man wriggled, his eyes shutting from the
agony. Steve pushed his body against the
man’s hand so the cuffs would not rattle as the man shook in pain.
“You nod your
head when you’re ready to tell me everything I need to know.” His voice was calm –
almost pleasant – but the steely determination was hard for the prisoner to
miss.
Forcefully,
he jabbed with extra might against the bandages. Blood started to seep through
the white swaths. Steve knew he should have been appalled
by his actions. This was so unlike him,
but he knew he had never been pressed to the wall like
this before. Precious hours had slipped by and his sister and friend could be
dead already. But
normal channels would not work. Police
procedure was not enough. In good conscience -- the conscience of his heart --
he could not allow this man to lay here with the vital information needed to
save those he loved. This might cost him his job. He didn’t care. The
lives at stake here were far more important to him than his career.
Stuart
nodded, finally, and McGarrett released his pressure on the wound. He waited a moment for the thrashing to cease
and Stuart to regain some breath as he slowly loosed his strangle hold.
“If you don’t
tell me exactly what I want to know the next phase will be worse. If you alert
the guard, you’re going to be sorry. He won’t be able to save you.
Do you believe me?”
The eyes were filled with hatred, tears and fear. Stuart nodded.
McGarrett
released the tight cloth. “Where is Thore going? I want
exact locations and I want it quick. Don’t waste my time with trivial extras. Where is he going?”
“
“Well their
travel plans have just changed.” He
stabbed his finger toward the man and the guy
flinched, backing into the corner of the bed.
“And if you don’t want me to tell them who spilled the information on
them, then you’re not going to share this little visit with Harte
or Fischer, are you?”
The hate
still sizzled in his eyes, but it was overpowered by the
residual pain. He gave a tight
shake of his head. Without another
thought to the scum, Steve wheeled around and nearly jogged from the room. They had a location. There was a good chance
the hostages were still alive and held there in
**********
“You’re doing
great! You’re a natural!”
“Don’t let go
of my hand!”
“I won’t let
go!”
“I’m so
tired. Can I float with you again for awhile?”
He brought
his legs underneath him, and pulled her over so that she could rest against his
chest.
“How deep do
you think the water is?” The blackness of the water added to her sense that
they were hovering over a vast, bottomless pit.
“Oh, it’s not
more than seven feet, I’m sure,” Dan replied
teasingly, and then changing the subject, “Mary Ann, why didn’t you ever learn
to swim?”
“I fell out
of a row boat in a city lake when I was four. If it hadn’t
been for my brother jumping in after me, I would’ve drowned. After that, there
was just nothing – nothing short of brutal murderers chasing me out of a boat –
that could get me into anything deeper than a bathtub.”
Despite their
peril, she marveled that she was actually floating in the ocean, which was no
doubt much deeper than seven feet! A perplexing thought struck her, and she
lifted her head from her new friend’s shoulder. “How do you know my name?”
Dan smiled.
Steve had summoned him from the
“Allow me to
introduce myself. I’m Detective Danny Williams. I work
for—” the woman’s reaction to his statement was immediate and palpable.
She gasped so
loudly that Dan stopped speaking, wondering if she was okay. A smile and then a
laugh came forth. The detective was uncertain as to the source of her mirth.
Then, oddly, tears began to flow, even through the laughter.
“Are you
alright?” Dan was growing concerned, his eye brows
furled.
“Danny! I’m so happy to meet you. Steve talks about you so often.
I’m afraid he’d be lost without you.”
The news filled
Dan with emotion. He didn’t picture Steve being lost
without him – that was a woman reading between the lines – but the thought that
his boss spoke of him on occasion to his sister pleased him for a reason he
couldn’t quantify.
“You don’t
look so happy,” Dan responded to Mary Ann’s tears. It was futile in the
sloshing water and drizzle, but she went through the motion of drying her face
with the back of her hand.
“I was just
thinking about Stephen. He has to be crazy with worry right now,” she said
softly, laying her head back down on his shoulder.
Dan nodded,
“Yeah. His baby sister kidnapped out of his office.”
She was
tired, but she had to lift her again to make eye contact, “AND his little
brother.”
Dan knew in
his heart that her words rang true, but to hear the words spoken as if the
observation was obvious struck a chord deep in Williams’ soul. His friend had
invested an incredible amount of his valuable time in him professionally and
personally. The thought that Steve felt an emotional kinship with him (one that
was reciprocated) gave the detective a sense he’d
found his place in the world.
His only
living relative, Aunt Clara, loved him dearly, but she lived a world away, and
they had very little in common. He did his level best to call her weekly, but
often as not, one or the other of them was too busy to talk for more than a few
minutes. Every year, he promised himself that he would try to be a better
nephew, but time always seemed to work against him.
To have a
brother – was it envy he’d felt earlier? Not any more.
**********
In the early
hours of the morning, before dawn, Kauai PD, Five-0 officers and the FBI agents
crept through the thick ferns surrounding a small cabin on the beach of
Hawaii’s northern-most island. The boat was tied to the small dock just past the thick strip of
sand. Feeling a tension and anticipation
that nearly made his nerves dance just under the skin, Steve held his revolver
with a tight grip.
The FBI,
issuing flack jackets and rifles to the team, gave the
signal to move in. Two teams hit the
front and back doors simultaneously.
Powerful flashlights and flood lights from
outside snapped on as the doors crashed in under the assault of the heavily
armed party. There were several bodies on cots in the big main room and two of
them sat up instantly, firing pistols blindly at the intruders. Both men went down in a rain of multiple
bullets.
“Watch it!”
Steve shouted above the yells for surrender, the gunfire, the tramping of
feet. “There are hostages here!”
The other two
criminals, Thore included, raise their hands in
surrender. They were
roughly dumped on the floor, cuffed and searched. Steve raced through the other small rooms in
the cabin -- a bathroom, kitchen and small bedroom. No Mary Ann. No Danno. No sign of the prisoners. Sweeping back into the main room, Steve
wedged past Harte and grabbed Thore
by the front of his T-shirt. He slammed
the criminal into the wall.
“Where are
they? Where are the hostages you took?”
The FBI men
pulled him off and he fought back like an enraged tiger, breaking free and
attacking the criminal again. It was
only then he noted abrasions and wounds on the man -- injuries he had not had
while in Five-0 custody. Again subdued,
this time by four members of the tactical team, McGarrett was
breathlessly restrained as he shouted demands to Thore.
The criminal
glared at him. “Had a good time with
them before they became shark bait,” he smiled.
“Your sister,” he laughed. “I’ll
tell you all about it, McGarrett. And the cocky kid.
Bled like a pig when we opened him up.”
“That’s
enough,” Harte said, glancing at the infuriated
McGarrett and sneering with distaste at the prisoner. “What did you do with
them, Thore?”
“We dumped
them in the ocean.”
“Looks like they gave pretty well back. Musta been the spunky kid,” the FBI man guessed with
satisfied amusement. “Is that a broken
nose, Thore?”
“Shut up.”
Steve might have been physically restrained, but his vile was
unleashed verbally at the thugs and at the FBI. Beside himself with grief and terror in equal
parts, he could not imagine Thore was telling the
truth. This could not be the end. The final hours of his sister were spent in
torture and horror?
And Danno, what had they done to him? He couldn’t bring himself
to imagine the possibilities.
“Get them out
of here,” Harte ordered. He gave a nod to his men and McGarrett was released only after the criminals were removed. “Cool off, McGarrett. There’s nothing you
can do now. It’s over.”
Kono and Chin
were both nearby and they stood silently as McGarrett composed himself. They shifted their gazes uncomfortably, not
certain what they could do to comfort their boss – a man who had
-- until Williams came on board – taken comfort from no one.
Devastated in
their own right at what was shaping up to be the loss
of one of their own, they both knew there would be no easy way to make this man
accept that he had just lost his only sister and the man who was becoming known
to the entire island law enforcement community as McGarrett’s “right
hand.” Both men knew, without so much as
a word exchanged between them, that they would have to let the agonizing
situation play out as their tortured leader would have
it unfold.
Steve could
not accept they were dead. Why would the cowardly thugs dump valuable hostages
into the ocean before they made a clear escape?
It didn’t make sense. In the back of his mind, a latent fear rose
-- the worry he had harbored all along -- that Danno was a danger to himself
more than anyone else in such a situation. He would have fought like a madman to protect Mary Ann.
Had it been a futile sacrifice in the end? It seemed so.
What could one bound Five-0 officer -- even with all the determination
in the world -- do against four armed and vicious killers?
Not wanting
to dwell on agonizing speculation, Steve looked over the shoulders at the
officers inspecting the small cottage.
There was no obvious sign of the hostages ever having been here. But there might be
something on the boat. His men followed and they trooped out to the dock. With flashlights
they carefully searched the boat. Not moving anything, they easily identified
large splashes of blood on the deck and side of the boat. Duct tape strips -- several -- with dark
smears were found.
As if Danno and Mary Ann had managed to free
themselves maybe? The plumeria lei Mary
Ann had worn was there, too, crushed and torn.
Was Thore lying? Had
Danno managed to get them free? There
was a fight. Danno had not gone down
without a hell of a struggle. Maybe he
had not gone down at all. Maybe he had
freed himself and Mary Ann and gone overboard voluntarily? Mary Ann couldn’t
swim, he mentally reminded with a chill of fear. But
Danno was an expert. The uncertain dangers of the ocean as
opposed to certain death at the hands of the criminals? Yeah, Danno would choose that long-shot. He lived
every day banking on long-shots on the job. And he was crazy
enough, confident enough in his abilities as an athlete, to make such an escape
work for him.
Steve stood
over the pool of blood and walked the trail across the deck to the rail. Following the path, he stared out at the dark
sea. Were his sister and the friend he
considered his brother out there waiting to be rescued? Or had they truly
been brutalized and murdered before being dumped in the sea? Faith in his man told him to believe in the
best hope. Believe in his friend. They were bound by
emotions deeper than he could fathom, as if they were really the same blood,
the same under the skin. Deep down, in
the deepest part of the heart -- the soul -- they were the same. And Steve knew that
he had to give his friend the benefit of the doubt and believe he was alive and
he had kept Mary Ann alive.
Sharply, he turned on his heels.
“Come on,” he ordered his men as he leaped over the side and onto the
dock. “We’re going back to
“Sounds like a pupule thing he would do,” Kono agreed without
surprise. “But how we gonna find them, boss?”
“We’re going to get the Coast Guard to get everything out on the
water and in the air. And
HPD, too. Danno bought a long-shot
chance for him and Mary Ann. I’m not going to blow it.
We have to do everything we can to find them.”
**********
The waves had
been beating against them for a couple of hours Dan guessed. The exhausted
detective felt certain that blood loss was taking its toll on him as well.
Never give up. Never give up. He whispered his mantra to himself. How he hated
to broach the subject with Mary Ann, but there was just no
good alternative. He didn’t think he could stay
conscious much longer.
“Mary
Ann?” He touched the back of her head, and she looked up at him as he
continued, “I don’t want you to be upset, but we’ve got a little problem.” He
could feel her body tense as she spoke.
“You mean
besides floating in a dark ocean with no sign of land?”
He
sighed, “Yeah, besides that.” He actually felt less pain than he’d felt earlier, the cool water numbing his skin, but he
knew he was markedly weaker by the minute.
“Back on the boat, when I was fighting with those creeps—“ He paused, and Mary Ann jumped ahead to the logical
conclusion.
She burst
out, “You’re hurt, aren’t you?”
He nodded,
“One of ‘em managed to get a knife into my
back.”
She
gasped, now remembering the scene. Her
own fear of the anticipated watery escape had made her completely forget the
brutal struggle that had transpired.
He added,
“And I think I might have a concussion to boot.”
A large
tear left the corner of her eye and traveled slowly down her cheek, but she
answered in an almost clinical tone. “Let me feel.”
She
cautiously ran her hand under his arm and around his back. Just below his right
shoulder blade, she felt an open wound, about two inches wide. As her fingers
hovered over the area not quite touching, she could feel warmth. Knowing it was
blood slowly leaving its host, she pressed down to see if she could seal it
off. Dan flinched and groaned, almost pulling away from her in the process.
Panicking
for a moment, she grabbed him around the neck and pulled near to him. She’d hurt him and he was reeling from the pain.
“I’m
sorry,” she cried.
‘Listen
to me,” His voice was decidedly weaker as he spoke, “You can float – you must
remember that. You don’t need me to float.”
**********
The FBI had
interrogated Thore, and -- no surprise -- he had not
changed his tune. McGarrett was not
going to bother trying. His job was out
here, pushing the search effort. His
forceful attitude -- a familiar McGarrett trait that Tom was
more than used to -- helped his brother-in-law steady himself. Tom believed there was hope, but wouldn’t go so far as to voice a belief that Mary Ann was
alive. Just months ago they had lost their baby. His world was pretty rocky right now.
Well, Steve was going to restore his faith.
“Danno saved
them,” he told Tom matter-of-factly as he waited for confirmation of the
resources that the Coast Guard would be bringing to bear as soon as it was
light enough.
Tom, tapping
nervously on the side of his empty coffee cup, almost smiled. “You keep saying things like that,
Steve. I’ve
never heard you speak so highly of anyone.
I wish I could share your faith.”
“Try, Tom.”
Whalen shook
his head. “It’s hard after what we’ve
been through. I can’t
imagine losing Mary Ann. She’s so much a part of me.
And I know, you feel the same, but I can’t
explain how close we are. Losing Tommy
could have destroyed us, but it bonded us.
The adversity made us closer, made our feelings deeper. Maybe because we knew how precious
and fragile life is and how easy it is to lose those you love. I guess
I’m afraid to believe I could lose her – but afraid to hope too much.” He covered his face with his hand. “I’m not making any sense.”
Near tears,
Steve could not voice how much Tom had been so right on target. He thought back to his father’s death, his
mother’s death. How close those events
pulled him to his sister. They had
survived the grief together. Then he
thought of only weeks ago when Danno was trapped at the end of a hospital
corridor bleeding to death. He had
thought he was losing the man he’d accepted as his
protégé, the friend whom he’d adopted as his brother.
Tom’s words
hit home with a force that shivered through to his marrow. He had fought like a madman
to save Danno. He had to. There was no
choice. Now, there was no choice. He could not believe he would lose two people
who filled most of the space in his heart.
He trusted that given the chance, Danno was fighting just as hard to
stay alive and keep Mary Ann alive because he felt the same. They were like
family. Ohana. All of them bonded by cords of loyalty
and love. Danno would not let him down.
Again the
lance of fear raced through him -- that Danno would do anything to save Mary
Ann. Even at the expense of his
life. Don’t let
that happen, he silently pleaded. What
would he do if his friend didn’t come out of
this? He thought of the comments by Thore. The blood on the boat deck.
The overwhelming trait within Williams to do anything
for him. He closed his eyes,
praying his friend was still alive.
‘Save yourself, Danno. For me, come out of
this alive.’
**********
She wept
and buried her face in his shoulder, “I don’t want to float without you.”
He
squeezed her arm and responded hoarsely, “Think of Tom. Think of your
brother. Think of Steve. He can go on without me, but to lose you like
this – he’d never be the same.”
She
looked up at him and blinked, trying to gauge the depth of his belief in the
remark. He looked down at her as he brought his hand up to swipe some tendrils
of hair from her cheek. His gentle, protective demeanor brought Steve to mind
AGAIN. Her intuition told her that her brother was right about this man. Men! How can they be so oblivious! She
pondered briefly, but suspected she would never know.
“Danny,
we BOTH have to make it out of this! He’d miss me, but
you’re the one who makes the difference for him every day. You’re
what’s right in his world. I can hear it in his voice every time I talk to him.
Now, please, don’t talk to me about floating alone,” she implored.
Dan so
wanted to lay his head back onto something solid. He was tired, so tired, and
wished he had the clearness of thought to ponder more plainly
what she was saying before he had to answer.
Steve really talked about him like that?
There
was more he wanted to hear about -- Steve’s life in the early years. What he
was like -- there wasn’t time or energy now. With sickening soberness, he knew his time
was running out. He thought about how
crazy Steve had been over the hospital ordeal.
He had scared Kono and Chin with almost unbalanced rage at the hostage
situation. What would Steve do if he
died? He had no control over that, he
knew, as he struggled to keep his eyes open and his grip on Mary Ann. All he could do now was try to save this
important woman in his arms.
“We may
not have a choice.” The reality of it was a harsh one, but to
not prepare her for what was probably to come could mean her death. “I need to tell you something,” Dan hesitated
slightly, suddenly filled with regret for things that had
been left unsaid between him and Steve.
Maybe he
could tell Mary Ann what he couldn’t tell her brother – something that he
desperately wanted Steve to know if he was never to see him again. Perhaps one
day, she would be able to share with Steve what had been in his heart – what
two guys just don’t say to each other very often, no
matter how much they care.
“There is
nothing on this planet that I wouldn’t do for Steve. He helped and supported me
right from the first time we met. For some reason I’ll
never understand, he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. And he’s helped me everyday to become a better person. If I
die out here tonight, knowing that Mary Ann Whalen, much beloved sister of
Steve McGarrett, will do what she has to in order to return to her family and
live a happy, productive life, I will die happy.” Dan could feel the emotion threatening to
choke him, and Mary Ann’s teary countenance was no help.
She was
overwhelmed – at the mutual respect and love that these two men shared, at the
willingness of each to put the other’s needs ahead of his own.
She was happy, even in the face of their terrible circumstance, that her big
brother had at last found a kindred spirit from whom he was willing to accept
support and comfort. Even as she rejoiced for her brother, she was tragically
sad because she could see that Dan was trying to convey to her some final words
of comfort for Steve.
“I want
you to thank Steve for me, and tell him that I have no regrets.” Dan touched
the woman’s face, her lips quivering, more from crying than the chill she felt.
The need to reassure this poor woman crept back into his being. She had endured
so much in the past year. “You’ll be alright. Please don’t give up.”
Mary Ann
found herself heaving sobs against his chest again for a few moments until she
regained enough of her composure to respond. “I won’t give up. I’ll float.”
The
conviction in her voice relaxed the weak detective, “Atta
girl.”
Suddenly,
he gasped with fright as he felt a rough brush against his calf. The sudden
tension in Dan’s body alerted Mary Ann to some unseen danger. He scanned the
surrounding water, knowing he was being sized up by a shark
for a
“Well,
it’s not a yacht, but the deck’s not underwater,” his teeth chattered. “We need
to get you out of the water.” His tone sounded suddenly desperate to her, and
she wondered at his renewed sense of urgency. He pulled her in front of him and
instructed her to lift herself up onto the platform.
“On
three,” he instructed. She nodded and reached her hands onto the top of the
object as best she could.
“One…Two…Threeeeee!”
Dan
pushed with his arms and kicked with every bit of strength he could summon,
pushing her upward. He didn’t know whether it was
enough when he sank back into the water, but the pain in his back was enough to
make him black out. For a few moments, he let the current tug his body in a
direction he knew he didn’t want to go. Then, the
thought of leaving Mary Ann on the open seas alone made him shake off the false
sense of peace that came over him momentarily. He
somehow summoned the will to kick his way back to the surface. The floating
object now was about ten feet away.
“Danny!
Danny! Don’t leave me!” He looked in the direction of the voice, and willed
himself into action. His arms were numb and his back was on fire, so it took
him longer than he would’ve liked to maneuver his way
back to Mary Ann. There were definitely sharks milling around his legs again.
“I’m
coming – Stay there!” He coughed between painful breaths of air. He didn’t know how long it took, but he eventually managed to
grab onto the side of the “thing” again. Next problem – how to get me out of the water! This is getting depressing.
**********
At dawn,
McGarrett lifted off in the Coast Guard chopper from Barber’s Point. A vessel and a recon plane were launching at
approximately the same time. It had
taken a lot of persuasion to convince the Commander of the Coast Guard to commence
the all out search. Two people, one or
both wounded, overboard in the middle of the night -- it was a near hopeless
scenario. It was obvious the Commander
did not expect to find them. If they
managed to stay afloat at all it wouldn’t have been
for long. It was unlikely they had lived
until this morning. Between the
exhaustion, injuries and the sharks there seemed little chance they could
survive.
Odds did
not factor into the equation as far as McGarrett was concerned. And Five-0 and the
Coast Guard had worked together long enough for the officers to know this was
not a personal whim. McGarrett would
extend any effort and often pushed other agencies to do the same. This could not be an exception.
The light
peeking over the meniscus of the ocean brought the first wave of optimism that
Steve had felt since the ordeal began.
As he and Tom looked out the open door of the huge Coast Guard
helicopter, Steve had only a glancing appreciation for the stunning morning in
paradise. Much more bright and energizing was the thought that this day would
bring him back together with those he loved.
Search teams were scouring the Pacific between
**********
Dan had
discovered that their floating thing was a giant crate of some sort. He had
decided that it must’ve fallen from a ship. He had
been able to find a support beam that ran between opposite points on one of the
sides. Although slippery, with Mary Ann’s assistance, he was finally able to
get his body on top of the crate. He lay there on his stomach, breathing
heavily. He would not have expected a cold, slimy wooden surface would feel so
good, but it did.
Mary Ann
huddled against him as she was able to get her first
visual inspection, albeit a shadowy one, of the stab wound in Dan’s back. Blood
trickled slowly, but consistently from the gory opening. She reached around
him, and gently pulled her panty hose from Dan’s waistband.
“I need
my panty hose,” she said softly through chattering teeth, feeling the need to
hear a voice more than the need to explain herself.
Dan,
unmoving, mumbled, “Don’t get dressed on my account.”
“I’m
going to try to make a little pressure bandage,” she responded. “This may hurt
a little, but I have to do it.”
Dan didn’t respond until she began applying pressure to his
back. He groaned, but knew the bleeding needed to be controlled. She lay down
next to him, and kept her hand firmly on the balled-up hosiery, praying that
what little she could do might make a difference.
Mary Ann’s physical discomfort would not
allow her to lay down for long. She sat up and scanned the dark horizon for any
lights or other signs that land might be nearby. For the first time since they’d
been in the water, her eyes could make out something – what she wasn’t certain,
but it was white. She hated to wake her sleeping partner, but there was no
other answer.
“Danny? Danny?”
The still form took an uncomfortably
long time before he stirred at the woman’s voice, “Hmmm?” He could barely bring
himself to reply.
“There’s something white on the
horizon!” She couldn’t keep the excitement out of her
voice.
Even the “good” news was slow to bring
the detective to a waking state. Pain seemed to leap from every cell in the
castaway detective’s body – even the numb parts. His thought process seemed
mired in tar. A gradual recollection of where he must be and how he got there
sank in. Mary Ann repeated her news just in case Dan had not heard her. Try as
he might, he could not suppress his cries of pain as he moved his body to a
sitting position. He sat there for a moment, with his helpless-but-sympathetic
companion squeezing his shoulder, noticing in the process that their haven from
the water was listing. It wouldn’t be long before
they’d be back in the water. His eyes burned as though the darkness was too
bright, and he realized he’d been asleep for a short
while anyway.
Other senses began to kick in as he
recognized the wave action was tossing them more roughly than it had been, and
he was hearing a familiar sound in the distance! Mary Ann, wrapped around his
shoulder like a blanket, was pointing to something. His blurred vision could
make out the white line that he established as crashing surf! Were they close
to land? Why couldn’t he make out any features? What
else would make the waves break like that?
“Are we near land?” Mary Ann asked
desperately.
Dan studied the scene for a few moments
before the answer came to him. He could see that the current was carrying them
toward the surf rapidly now.
“Not exactly,” he wished he didn’t have to explain, but knew he owed the frightened
woman the benefit of an explanation. “I think we might be on one side of one of
the atolls that are halfway between
His guess was based on a lifetime’s
experience in the waters around his beloved islands, and on the assumption that
their captors had been heading either to
“It must be low tide,” Dan mused as he
studied their situation. Of course,
he thought bitterly.
There would be no soft landing for them.
On the bright side, the likelihood of being consumed
by creatures of the deep had just diminished dramatically. Wave action now
became the top contender for means of death.
“I’m
sorry, Mary Ann, it’s about time for your next swim lesson.”
Dan’s
voice had no humor when he said it, and she knew there was no choice. Trying to
find a shred of hope in his voice, she asked, “Will we be able to wait for help
on the atoll?”
“For a
little while,” Dan said softly, if we
make through the surf, he completed the thought silently. Then, aloud, he
finished the answer. “Until
the tide comes in.” He looked over at her dashed expression and thought
to bolster her spirits again. “That’ll
give us a few hours anyway. By then, Steve will be here.”
She let a
smile slip out. “Your faith is amazing.”
“Not so
amazing if I know my McGarretts. He’s working right
now to find us, and he won’t stop until he does.”
Dan said
it as much for himself as for Mary Ann. They had to believe that help was on
the way. Dan further explained to her that they were going to have to jump from
their makeshift raft before they hit the surf. The crate would become a hazard
when it splintered on the rocks. She nodded timidly, accepting his expertise on
the subject without question.
They
carefully rose to their feet on the unsteady deck, and with Mary Ann’s hand
wrapped tightly in his, he looked at her and said, “You are one tough lady,
Mrs. Whalen.”
Shaking
in anticipation, she smiled, determination to live
filling her. “And you are one amazing
cop, Detective Williams.”
A last
meaningful look exchanged, Dan pulled her to the edge of the crate, and they
jumped into the water.
The next
few minutes were the most physically harrowing of Mary Ann’s life. With her
arms wrapped tightly around Dan’s neck in abject terror, all she could do was
pray that Dan could navigate the surf. The waves raked over them several times,
rolling them like dice on a crap table. All the while, Dan’s arms remained
locked around Mary Ann’s head and shoulders – his back and legs accepted the
brunt of the painful scraping along the volcanic surface. At last
the waves got smaller and they were able to plant their bare feet on the
painfully jagged surface of the atoll. Clinging to each other, the pair
staggered as far from the water as they could. The detective could stand no
longer. He collapsed on the rocks, and Mary Ann took his head in her lap, and
reclined onto the rock behind her. It wasn’t
especially comfortable, but at least it was solid.
She gazed
down at the still form; his shirt now stained deep pink from the mix of blood
and salt water, wondering how much longer he could make it without medical
attention.
Hurry, Steve! We need you! she silently implored
her brother to rescue them.
**********
Returning to
the base twice to refuel, McGarrett found, as he looked out at the declining,
late afternoon sun, that his sense of desperation was
at its peak. They had searched the ocean
between
Even Steve’s
stubborn tenacity recognized it was not possible to expect to find Mary Ann and
Williams now. Staying alive and afloat
for more than twenty-four hours was ridiculous. Danno could have made it alone;
Steve knew but did not voice this to Tom, his constant companion. But Mary Ann couldn’t swim.
Danno would have been helping her.
Wounded, fatigued, he would not have lasted this long, and he would
never abandon her. What a way for this
to end, he bleakly thought with sickening dread.
Soon they
would have to call off the search because of darkness. They would start up
again tomorrow, but procedurally there would be fewer men and less equipment.
The search would become more of an administrative accounting operation to prove
that every effort had been made to rescue the lost.
He could
hardly fathom the reality of the tragedy.
It would hit him at some point, but right now
he could fight it off by staying active.
By being out here doing something as futile as
searching the huge
This was
worse than the hostage crisis at the hospital.
There he knew Danno was at the end of the corridor. He could almost see him,
sometimes hear him.
That connection made him believe he could save his friend. Now they were all lost -- adrift in an
endless sea. A
metaphor that might be all too accurate if his friend died. He would be so completely lost without
Danno’s constant support, loyalty and talent.
At the
hospital, Steve had worried he would never be able to talk to his friend
again. Never be able to say things he
should have. Did Danno even know how
important he was?
Steve would
tell him now. If he found Danno he would let his friend know the priceless bond they
shared and what the young man had brought into his life.
“Mr.
McGarrett?”
The pilot’s voice over his headset. “Yes?”
“The recon
plane just spotted what looks like two bodies on Invisible Atoll. We’re swinging over.”
“Great!”
Steve shouted, his heart caught in his throat, his mind grabbing at any morsel
of hope it could find. Excited, he clapped Tom’s back then moved from the jump
seat in the back of the chopper to join the men near the cockpit.
Tom was right
behind him. “What do they mean two
bodies? And what is Invisible Atoll?”
The pilot
responded to the second question first.
“It’s a little atoll a few miles off the coast of
“What do they
mean about the bodies?”
“Recon says
they spotted something pink and something blue and white on the atoll. Checking it out they found no boats in the
area and what looks like two bodies washed onto the atoll.”
Tom’s face
reflected panic. “Bodies --“
Steve’s surge
of excitement did not diminish, refusing to consider what he could not
accept. “They have to be exhausted, Tom!
They made it to the atoll! That’s the
important thing!”
As the
chopper swung over the Atoll location, Steve’s optimism graduated to
panic. The atoll was clearly visible
from the air, the multi-colored coral providing a spectacular picture-postcard
sight with the spot of black lava rocks surrounded by shades of green, ringed
by the indigo ocean. Yes, there were two
still forms atop the rocks. But those rocks were quickly disappearing with the splash of
the advancing sea.
“Hurry up and
get a harness down there!” McGarrett ordered.
“They’re not
alive,” Tom agonized.
**********
He heard the
drone for what seemed like a long time.
Without the energy to move, he kept his eyes closed and listened. Sounded like a motor. A boat? A chopper? That was what they had hoped for all
day. Last night, they had crawled up to
the small bit of rock that was attainable in the receding tide. The coral had saved them from sharks and
other predators of the sea. Frustratingly,
they could see the lights from the houses far away on the
After dawn
they could see planes in the distance, some boats that sped by, but no one ever
came close enough to spot them. He had
slept most of the hot day too exhausted to care about his skin blistering in
the unforgiving sun. Too
weak to worry about his agonizing thirst. Mary Ann never complained about the harsh
conditions. She did have an angry tirade once about how close they were and how far away
they seemed from civilization. It
was so reminiscent of her brother that he laughed until he drifted off to sleep
again.
Now, he couldn’t even lift his head up. He was so totally
fatigued all he wanted to do was sleep.
“Danny? What’s that noise?”
The fear in
her tone caused him to snap his eyes open.
She was fuzzy and in his blurred vision looked like three or four Mary Ann’s. He was reminded that his duty was not finished. She was still alive and while he could still
breathe and move he was obligated to protect her. He
could not give up yet.
“And the water! Danny, my feet are wet!”
She curled up
next to him, as if scrunching into a ball would keep them safe a little
longer. He placed a hand on hers,
closing his eyes again, hoping she would go to sleep and not feel it when the
ocean engulfed them – wait -- him. SHE
was going to get out of this.
“Remember
your promise,” he whispered. “You’re
going to get through this.”
“So are you,”
she insisted.
He smiled at
the McGarrett-esque tone and demand. As if just by their will
they could make things happen. They
could. He’d
seen it so many times in Steve. The poignant moment was an emotional high
followed instantly by a crash into depression.
He would give anything if he had just one more minute with his friend to
say the things that he’d left unsaid. If he had just
one more chance . . . .
“Danny! It’s a helicopter!”
**********
Steve couldn’t respond to the exclamation that they were
dead. To come this far -- to find Danno
and Mary Ann had made it safely to land -- if they weren’t
alive he didn’t think he could survive this.
Then the red-haired figure in pink sat up and waved! Tom shouted, crying with joy, and hugged
Steve. McGarrett felt his own tears welling up with relief. As the chopper hovered, his initial happiness
crashed. Mary Ann was alive and trying
to get Danno’s attention. Danno was not
moving. At this distance, he could see
the torn blue and white Aloha shirt Williams wore was stained
red.
“No! He’s got to be
alive! Don’t let it end like this!” The
words he was thinking slipped from his mouth, not able to be contained.
**********
She was
violently shaking his shoulder and yelling.
Groaning, he recognized the noise and realized it was close. With her help she
rolled him over on his back and he saw the wonderfully delightful sight of the
orange and white of a Coast Guard chopper. Hanging out the door, was another
welcome and familiar sight and he managed to smile weakly.
“I told you
he would come,” he sighed, but his quiet words were drowned
by Mary Ann’s yells and the chopper blades. If he had the energy
he would have waved, too. “I knew you’d
get here, Steve,” he sighed.
“It’s
Steve!” She was screaming in his ear,
shaking him.
With all the
effort he had left, Danny slowly sat up with her help and managed to get one
swipe of a weak wave out of his lead arm. Steve waved back and wore the biggest
grin ever. As the basket was lowered, Dan couldn’t
stop smiling himself.
There were no
extra crewmen to help in the rescue, so the basket was
lowered alone. Williams struggled to
hold it steady. Water was already
lapping around their feet as the blades whipped at them. Mary Ann also held onto the basket, but did
not make a move to leave.
“Get in!”
“You’re hurt,
Danny, you go first!”
Williams shook
his head, as dizzy as it was, in abject frustration. McGarretts! Can’t
live with them and can’t live without them.
Their stubbornness was insane.
They were about to be rescued and she -- just like her brother --
decides to play hero! Several times the
basket whipped out of his hands and he let it go, no longer having the strength
to work so hard. Mary Ann had to retrieve it, and she fought to keep a hold of
it. The wind up there must be rough
because the pilot seemed to be having a hard time keeping the chopper
steady. This was no time for an
argument.
“You can’t
swim, Mary Ann! The tide is coming
up! It’s up to
our knees! Now get in here and let them
take you up now!”
Reluctantly
obeying, she jumped into the basket and it was cranked up. Without her support, Dan fell back onto the
rocks. He would have passed out again,
but the lapping water around his ears, then over his face, convinced him to
struggle up again. He was
covered in water and the wildly splashing waves from the chopper blade
wind made it impossible to stay down.
Before Mary
Ann had reached the safety of her rescuers, Dan had to stand to keep above the
water. He was amazed at how heavy the
wind was, then realized, slowly, that it was his own
diminishing power that was causing him to sway.
With a crash,
he was back in the water, unable to stay on his feet. The waves were taking
control now. He’d struggled until his blood-starved,
numb muscles would cooperate no more. Acquiescing to the demanding water, he
felt more comfortable than he’d felt in hours.
Suddenly, he could see Steve there with him, in the
almost peaceful water below the violence of the waves.
“Danno, I’m here.”
“Steve, I really want you to know how much it’s
meant to me – being part of Five-0 – being your second. I tried very hard to
live up to what you believed I could do and I only
hope that you know that I did my best. l couldn’t ask
for a better friend, and if I had it all to do over again, I wouldn’t change a
minute.”
There – he’d said it. Mary
Ann was safe, his last duty to his friend discharged, and he tried to find his
face again to say goodbye, but instead caught an angry earful.
“Danno! Don’t
do this! Come on, breathe!
Breathe!”
**********
Steve’s
attention had been divided between Mary Ann and
Danno. The basket was swinging in the
wind and the co-pilot operating the winch had to keep it slow to make sure she didn’t dangerously swing too much during the ascent. Back on the atoll, Williams seemed to be
having a tough time staying on his feet.
Finally, the
basket reached the hull and Tom grabbed onto Mary Ann. Their hugs and tears briefly included him,
but he disengaged almost immediately as he began to supervise the basket
descent again. As McGarrett leaned out to confirm his friend’s position, he saw
Dan collapse, tumbling into the water that was now covering the atoll, and
within a few seconds, a huge wave hit and swept him off the atoll.
“Danno!” he
yelled. He shook Mary Ann’s
shoulder. “How bad is Danno hurt?”
In the arms
of her husband now, she peered down and saw the water had engulfed him. “Oh, no! Steve, he’s in
terrible shape. He insisted I come up
first --“
McGarrett
shouted several more times, but Williams did not move. Then Steve grabbed onto
the edge of the basket and leaped in. The descent wasn’t
fast enough and when he saw Dan’s body disappear under the ocean he jumped over
the side, hoping his instant judgment of location was going to clear him of the
coral.
The impact
with the water from that height was hard and for moments
he plunged down. The cool water was a
shock, too, but he started swimming up immediately, powerful strokes taking him
instantly to the surface. He had missed
the coral fortunately, but had to leap far from Williams’ position. Fighting the chopper wind and the waves, he
swam hard to his friend’s last location.
Diving under the surface, he took two descents before spotting
Danno. His friend was
floating face down, completely limp.
He grabbed
onto Dan’s waist and swam up. It was
slow, tough going and he finally made it, gasping for air when he hit the
surface. Danno, however, was not
breathing, and Steve pumped his chest several times.
“Danno! Don’t do this! Come on, breathe! Breathe!”
Water
expelled from his mouth and he coughed, wincing from the pain of breathing
again. Steve swam over to the basket and hauled his friend in, giving the
signal to crank it back up. His shoes
scraped against rock and he found he could stand on the highest peak of the
atoll. He didn’t
even have to tread water before the basket came back down for him.
Back in the
chopper, the co-pilot was administering first aid to Williams. Mary Ann hovered close, quietly talking to
Danno as if she had known him all his life.
Obviously, under the duress of the situation, they had bonded in an
unexpected way, formed a relationship he had not considered. As if Danno was one
of the family. He knelt down beside them, blinking back the tears at the
poignant scene. This was what he had hoped for -- his sister -- and his kid brother -- alive.
“How is
he?” He asked, watching as sterile pads were placed on a nasty wound on Dan’s back.
“He’s going
to be fine,” Mary Ann insisted firmly, another
McGarrett-like attitude, as if commanding it would make it so. She hugged Steve
tightly. “He’s stubborn, just like the
rest of the family.”
“Yeah,” Steve
smiled, hugging her back.
The co-pilot
finished securing a pressure bandage to the gaping wound in Dan’s back, and,
having done all he could, left the chilled, unconscious patient on his stomach,
draped in two blankets.
Steve’s
untrained eye silently assessed and diagnosed the two patients. Mary Ann had
numerous scrapes and a bruise on her cheek. If one of those slimes hit her . . . .
She was
clearly exhausted and dehydrated, but other than that, she appeared to be in
relatively good condition.
Dan, on the
other hand, had not faired so well. In addition to the same evidence of
prolonged exposure to the elements, massive abrasions along his legs and back, he’d clearly been in a fight. It was nothing short of a
miracle that Dan had been able to keep himself, let alone himself AND Mary Ann,
afloat in a dark, cool, shark-infested ocean for any length of time. That he
had managed it overnight was a testament to his determination.
Steve said
another silent prayer of thanks for the return of the two people closest to
him. He continued to pray that Danno would make it to the hospital. To make it
this far and then die – a fear that Steve harbored in his gut – was just an
untenable possibility.
Tom hovered
over his wife and tried to get her to lie down and rest, but she was not to be
pulled from physical contact with the man who’d been
her life preserver. The co-pilot draped a blanket around her now-violently
shivering form as she continued stroking Dan’s hair and murmuring, through dry
lips, reassurances to him.
“I did what
you said, Danny. We’re going to be fine… You were
right – Steve came for us… Steve came for us… Steve’s
here with us… You said he would come –” Tears began to flow as she looked up at
her brother, who was sitting on the floor with his hand on Dan’s shoulder. “And he came… I was just ready to give up,
but Danny insisted that you’d be along to collect us.”
Steve’s lips
trembled at the faith – in him – that had kept the pair going.
She
continued, “And you knew that we – Danny – would find a way to keep us alive
until you got here, didn’t you?”
Steve could
feel the moisture in his eyes as he nodded. “I knew.”
He reached
across and touched her cool cheek with the back of his hand. He truly had
believed.
“Oh, he knew
alright,” Tom confirmed to his wife, whom he sat
behind, hands securely locked around her shoulders. “Everybody told us there
was no way we’d find you alive – everybody. But Steve insisted…” His voice trailed
off as he considered the horrible possibility that they might have given up.
**********
The flight in
didn’t take more than thirty minutes, but it felt like longer to McGarrett, who
was impatient to have both Mary Ann and Dan medically evaluated by
professionals. The pilot of the Coast
Guard chopper had radioed ahead, so a medical team was standing by in the
parking lot of the familiar
By now, Mary
Ann was unable to move under her own power from her reclined position against
Tom. She resisted assistance for another
few seconds as she stared down at Dan’s motionless figure. He hadn’t moved the entire flight, and her brother’s worried
countenance fueled her anguish about deserting one who would, she knew without
a doubt, never desert her.
“He would
never leave me – he promised,” Mary Ann repeated what she had said several
times during the flight.
Steve could
almost hear his friend saying the reassuring words to the frightened woman.
Only calm, repetitive bolstering would’ve penetrated
the mantle of panic in which he knew his younger sister would’ve been
enveloped. Her intense phobia of water was well-known
to him. That Dan was able to get her to accept what she refused to accept her
entire life – that she could survive in water over her head – was just another
of the numerous miracles that the head of Five-0 believed had occurred in the
past hours.
“Don’t worry,
sis,” McGarrett said to her softly as he gently helped Tom lift her out of the
helicopter into the beckoning arms of two attendants. “I’ll stay with him.”
“And you can
bet he will too,” Bergman said as he lifted a blanket from the foot of the
gurney so that the two attendants could place her shivering form there.
Doctor
Hansen, another doctor familiar to McGarrett, took over care of Mary Ann as she was whisked away by her medical team. Bergman, another
physician Steve did not recognize, a nurse and two
attendants remained to remove the more critical patient to the hospital.
As soon as
the team got Dan’s limp body onto the gurney and they began moving toward the
hospital entrance, Bergman began his examination. He concentrated as he
listened to Dan’s heartbeat through his stethoscope.
“Do we need a
type and cross-match, Doctor?” the nurse at his side asked.
“No – Have
five units of A Positive brought down,” Bergman responded tersely. McGarrett
observed the doctor closely, watching desperately for reactions to vital signs,
as they trotted into the hospital and into one of the treatment rooms. Once
there, the head of Five-0 knew he was in the way, but would
not be compelled by the head nurse to wait outside.
Distractedly,
Bergman threw an instruction to the annoyed nurse. “Don’t waste your time,
The
unresponsive patient ultimately ended up on his stomach so that the knife wound
could be evaluated. McGarrett could see that blood
trickled consistently from the hole as long as there was no pressure. At last,
Bergman turned to Steve. “I need to get him up to surgery. His body temperature
was what’s kept him from bleeding out, but he’s warming up now.”
“Will he be
alright, Doc?” The intense expression on McGarrett’s tired, unshaven face
softened the physician slightly as he guided McGarrett out of the room. “Let’s talk after I’m finished.” That was not the answer the impatient detective wanted to hear,
but Bergman held his ground. “Go check
on your sister, Steve. I’ll find you when I’m done.”
He was
frustrated, but at least he had a course of action. Steve purposefully moved
down the hallway to learn from the desk clerk that Mary Ann had
been admitted and was already situated in a room on the third floor. He
climbed the steps two at a time, and burst into her room without the ceremony
of a knock. Tom looked up at Steve and smiled as Doctor Hansen adjusted the IV.
“She’s going
to be fine, Steve,” the relieved husband shared.
Hansen nodded
as he continued his task. “Yes, I want
to get her re-hydrated intravenously and keep her overnight for observation.”
Satisfied that the clear solution was flowing properly, he looked at Steve, the
epitome of what a concerned big brother should be, Hansen silently noted. “I’m
pleased, but completely and utterly amazed that this young woman was able to
stay alive overnight alone in the open sea, and come out with nothing more
serious than a little sunburn and a couple of abrasions,” the doctor expressed,
his bushy eye brows arching as he spoke.
McGarrett
started to speak, but the patient he thought was sleeping spoke first.
“I wasn’t
alone, Doctor.” Her voice was hoarse, but certain. “And I would’ve died – a
horrible death – if I HAD been alone.”
McGarrett was
satisfied with his sister’s response, so did not bother pouncing on the
physician with whom he’d had run-ins with before.
Hansen
corrected as he touched the patient’s arm, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Whalen. I just
meant that I’m amazed that one human being – or two – could survive without a
boat for that long.”
Mary Ann’s
sleepy eyes opened, and she looked up at her brother, “He doesn’t know Danny
Williams very well, does he?”
Happy to see
his little sister so full of spunk, Steve decided to rescue Hansen. “Oh, he
knows him all right – just not like I – uh we – do.”
“Is Danny
going to be alright?” Her eyes clouded with concern as she realized her brother
had promised to stay with Dan.
He smiled
gently at her. “They’re sewing him up now. Get some sleep!” She smiled back and
without any argument she closed her eyes. Within
seconds, it was obvious from the patient’s breathing that she had drifted off
into a much-needed slumber.
**********
The next two
hours were the usual agonizing pace-and-wait for the head of Five-0. His vigil
in the hall outside the surgical waiting room was interrupted
by visits from Chin and Kono, both of whom decided to remain in the waiting
room against their boss’s insistence that they go home. It had been a long
twenty four hours for everyone in the Five-0 office, and he was reminded of
this as May showed up to wait with her guys. Her arm
in a sling from the scuffle the day before, she too looked worn out, but
refused to leave until she learned Dan’s condition.
At last, Bergman
stepped out of the door at which McGarrett had stared for what seemed to be an
interminable amount of time.
“Let’s go in
here,” the doctor nodded in the direction of the waiting room. He acknowledged
the presence of the Five-0 staff as he sat down. Not standing on ceremony or
hedging with a man he knew did not want to hear anything but the to-the-point
truth, Bergman spoke. “Okay, he’s lost a
lot of blood, but we knew that. The knife wound was deep, but it didn’t penetrate any vital organs. In addition to the
obvious cuts, scrapes, and bruises, he also has a concussion – we won’t know
how severe until he regains consciousness.”
The doctor
rubbed his face for a second, and McGarrett knew the man well enough to know he
wasn’t finished. “What else?”
“Steve, Danny
lost a lot of blood over the course of many hours. Blood is what takes oxygen to the brain. In
times of trauma, the human body will slow down or cease blood flow to non-vital
areas just to keep it going to the brain. If enough blood loss occurs, the next
thing to suffer is the higher function areas of the brain. What I’m trying to
tell you is that there is a fair possibility that not enough oxygen got to
Danny’s brain in the last hour or two before we got the bleeding under
control.”
McGarrett
could feel the bile welling up in his throat as he
demanded. “What are you saying? That Danno might have brain damage?”
Bergman
responded, knowing there was no good way to lessen the blow. “How severe it may
be, we won’t know until he wakes up.”
McGarrett
leaned back into the sofa as he tried to absorb the crushing blow. He was
oblivious to the presence of May, Chin, and Kono as they moved closer to him,
the only thing they could do to show support for their boss, who was clearly
reeling from the doctor’s revelation. Typical to the man, however, he reacted
angrily to news which displeased him.
“That is
unacceptable! Danno’s survived too much in the past twenty four hours -- To
have us pronounce brain damage is -- is not going to happen!”
He stood,
shaking off the people around him, unable to offer the comfort that they
probably deserved from him at that moment. All the more painful, his team knew,
that normally, it would be Danno that would serve as the buffer between him and
the rest of the world in excruciating crises. Now, he felt like
it was he that was adrift and alone, anchorless . . . .
**********
McGarrett
went home long enough to shower, but returned to the hospital without as much
as a glance at his bed. He was beyond exhaustion, and running on what energy
caffeine could bring him. He peeked in on the sleeping form of his sister, who
was resting comfortably. He hoped that all of this ridiculous brain damage
business would be dismissed before she awakened in the
morning, knowing news of this nature would be devastating to her. He made his
way through the eerie, nighttime halls of the hospital to the Intensive Care
Unit, where his second-in-command lay recovering. The sound of the heart
monitor was comforting and almost hypnotic. Steve pulled a chair close to the
bed and lay his head down on the bed beside the patient.
He wasn’t sure what noise awakened him, but he snapped to
disoriented consciousness with the wariness of a cop at a crime scene. The
heart monitor was still beeping rhythmically, and Dan was still asleep. He had
to look at his watch to see, from the windowless room, that it was almost
“They would
only let me come for a visit if I could find a ride,” Mary Ann explained.
May picked
up, “I thought I’d stop by before I open up the store. How is he?”
McGarrett
fervently hoped that May had not mentioned the doctor’s horrible brain damage
comments to his sister. From Mary Ann’s cheery demeanor, he felt his concerns
were unfounded. No matter how grown up Mary Ann was, Steve could not help but
feel protective of his little sister, especially after her harrowing
experience.
“He’s still
sleeping,” was all McGarrett could think to say.
Mary Ann didn’t wait for any additional comments before she responded
softly. “It’s pretty tiring work, swimming for two people all night!”
Her brother
nodded at her, again filled with gratitude that his sister was still with him.
“It’s getting
crowded in here,” Bergman announced as he stepped through the door to check in
on his patient before heading to the morgue to do an autopsy. He looked down at
the patient in the wheelchair, and spoke to her gently, “And how are you
feeling, my dear?”
She smiled
tentatively, “I’m feeling much better, thank you. How long
before Danny wakes up?”
Bergman
glanced at McGarrett, not feeling ready for another confrontation with the
stubborn detective. “He’s been through quite a bit – it might be awhile.”
As if in
objection to the doctor’s words, a soft groan came from the bed. In unison, all
heads snapped in the patient’s direction. Steve leaped to his feet and moved to
stand close to the head of the bed.
Bergman moved
to stand next to him, May wheeled Mary Ann around to the opposite side of the
bed.
Not waiting
for a medical opinion, Steve placed his hand on Dan’s head and spoke. “Danno,
talk to me!” When no response was forthcoming, McGarrett, no longer satisfied
with waiting passively, spoke again with all of the authority he could bring to
bear, “Danno! Wake up and say something to me – anything!”
Another soft
moan and the patient stirred. His eyes opened slowly and panned lethargically
around the room without moving his head. Dan’s blue eyes were foggy, but they
met Steve’s and stopped.
“Okay, this
is a step in the right direction,” McGarrett said more to himself than anyone
else. “Now, Danno, speak to me. Say whatever’s on your mind!”
Steve waited
-- his eyes intent on his friend – there was no one else in the room. Twenty
seconds ticked by as the patient blinked and grimaced. At last, he took in a
long, slow breath, licked his lips and spoke.
Dan’s voice
weak and hoarse, “I take one morning off, and the office goes to Hell in a hand
basket.”
Relief and joy flooding every fiber of his being, McGarrett burst out
laughing, and was joined in relieved laughter by the others in the room. The
sudden outburst of noise made the patient flinch slightly, but even that
reaction was welcome to the man standing over him.
Eyes moist
again for the umpteenth time in the past twenty four
hours, Steve leaned his head against Dan’s gently. “I’m sorry, Danno. I guess I
can’t let you have any more days off. You just get
into too much trouble!”
Dan smiled
slightly and closed his eyes again, mumbling a reply before sleeping again. “I
was afraid you’d say that.”
Bergman, who’d observed the awakening from near the foot of the bed,
could only shake his head, “Amazing!”
**********
The balance
of the day was a whirlwind of activity both at the hospital and at the Five-0
offices. Members of the press began appearing at both locations demanding
information. News of the incredible story of the prisoner
escapes and their kidnapped victims’ dramatic journey from the Five-0 offices
to Invisible Atoll. Even the manic and intrusive presence of the press couldn’t dampen Steve McGarrett’s disposition on this day.
The two people closest to him in the world had been
miraculously returned to him. Yes, the day was a gift that he would
savor.
“Tell them
we’ll release a statement before the end of the day,” Steve said tersely to May
as she reiterated her request for more specific guidance about what to tell the
media.
She nodded as
she handed him a fresh cup of coffee, “Did you see that the FBI claimed credit
in their statement for the re-capture of the Thores?”
The secretary was referring to the front page story
about the fiasco. Under normal circumstances, she knew that her boss would have
quickly consumed the major news stories before his first appearance in the
office, but today, it hadn’t been more than forty five
minutes since they’d parted company at the hospital.
“I don’t
care,” her boss replied quickly with a smile and a raised eyebrow glance at
her. She’d worked for the man long enough to sense his
good humor and enormous relief at the outcome of the events of the past
forty-eight hours. He put his arm around her shoulder as they walked back
towards her desk, “You’re okay – Mary Ann is okay – and Danno’s going to be
fine! If the feds want the credit, let ‘em have it. I have what I want.”
She nodded
and smiled at the rare almost-personal admission, happy and relieved that all
would be right with her world that day.
“Have we got
HPD coverage set up at the hospital?” He asked. There would be no intrusions on
his sister or second-in-command while they rested today.
“Chin took
care of it, boss!” Her response was followed by the ring of
the phone, and she turned her attention to that as Steve collected the
stack of mail that she’d placed on the corner of her desk for him.
**********
“I don’t
know, Steve,” Mary Ann said uncertainly, dressed in a new muu
muu which
May had dropped off at lunchtime. Her brother and husband sat with her in her
room. Twenty four hours earlier, she’d been lifted
from the ocean into the waiting arms of her family. Doctor Hansen had pronounced
her fit for discharge, with the condition that she get
plenty of rest on her own over the next week. Clutching Tom’s hand, she
continued, “I just feel so – so guilty. Danny hasn’t even been awake again
since this morning and here I am, talking about leaving for a vacation on
The woman had
been as delighted as her brother at the brief conversation with Williams that
morning, but he’d returned to a deep repose from which
he was occasionally jostled by medical personnel. He might’ve
mumbled something unintelligible or perhaps just groaned as he was rolled for
evaluation of the sutured wound on his back. A drainage tube had
been sewn inside the wound to facilitate faster healing, but it had to
be monitored regularly.
“Sis, trust
me. Danno would want you to go. You can spend a few days resting up, per the
doctor’s orders, and when you come back, Danno will be awake, and I’m sure,
anxious to see how you’re doing.” He leaned over to where she sat, and placed
his hand firmly on her shoulder for emphasis. “Now, let’s get to the airport so
that you can be there in time for dinner in Lihue.”
She broke eye contact with Steve and looked at Tom to see that he was nodding
in agreement.
“Let’s go,
honey,” Tom said softly as he helped her to her feet. McGarrett stood and moved
to retrieve the wheelchair that was by the door. When she saw the wheelchair,
she spoke again, “I don’t need a wheelchair!” Both Tom and Steve ignored her
protestation.
“Do I have
to?”
“Yes,” Steve
replied, his tone commanding the concession, so she sat down in the chair as
Tom took over control of the mobile contraption.
The trio’s exodus from the hospital was met by numerous
well-wishers on the hospital staff, as the woman’s remarkable lack of serious
injury had spread through the hospital grapevine quickly. Steve went on ahead to pull the car up to the
entrance so that his sister could simply step from the wheelchair into his
waiting sedan.
As he
maneuvered his vehicle into position, he grimaced – Mary Ann
and Tom were enveloped by half a dozen reporters. Annoyed with himself
for not checking that door for press personnel before going to his car, he
quickly drove the car up to the crowd and was out of the vehicle to intervene
within seconds.
“Can you give
the poor woman a break?” He spat as he stepped in front of the nearest
reporter. In the same smooth movement, he opened the front door of his car, and
guided her into the seat.
She smiled
shyly, not accustomed to the attention. “It’s okay,
Steve.” Her protective brother ignored her as he made
sure she was tucked inside before closing the door.
Tom quickly
slipped into the back seat as McGarrett moved to the driver’s side. Knowing it
was a waste of time to demand a spontaneous press conference from the chief of
Five-0, the reporters stepped back slightly before Fred Ward, the same reporter
that had covered the hostage crisis with Dan and the marine for Channel Nine, called out. “Mr. McGarrett, how’s Danny?”
The aloof
countenance still on the detective’s face, he paused for a moment leaning on
the top of his door. The people of the state of
“He’s been
through a lot, but he pulled through the surgery just fine, and now the doctors
tell me that he needs to rest.” McGarrett flashed a rare smile at the surprised
reporters. “So let’s see if we can’t let him recuperate in peace, shall we?”
Ward, sensing
the atypically generous mood of the head of Five-0, pressed on. “Mr. McGarrett,
have the doctors given any indication of how long he might be out of
commission?”
With this
question, Steve hesitated. A regret that he’d tossed
away when his friend and sister had been rescued leaped from his mental waste
basket. He’d spent fruitless hours wishing he’d let
his second-in-command know how important he was to him. The opportunity to make
sure this regret never happened now stood there before him, microphone poised
to record whatever he chose to say.
“The doctors
have issued no edicts in this regard, but Detective Williams will have whatever
time off he needs to make a complete recovery – despite the fact that he’s like
my right arm, and day-to-day operations are much more difficult without him.”
His pronouncement was accepted eagerly by the handful
of press personnel like a hungry dogs accepting a table scrap. Satisfied, he
slid into his car and pulled away.
“They seem
like a very nice group of reporters, Steve,” Mary Ann mused as she studied her
brother’s set jaw.
Steve let out
a short laugh. “Don’t let them fool you,
sis.”
**********
The hospital
still had its nighttime aura as Dan awakened for the first time in twenty-two hours.
General muscular soreness and the delicate skin on his scraped back helped him
more quickly recollect his circumstance. Loathe to move
too quickly, he glanced around the dark room without only the slightest
movement of his head. He suddenly realized that something else had caused the
bed to move, and saw the hand of his boss tightly wrapped around the railing.
The man was slouched down in a large chair, which now directly
abutted his bed. For the grip Steve had on the metal support, one uninitiated would
suspect that he was wide-awake and ready to jump to his feet. Dan had teased
his friend about being an alert sleeper, with a hair trigger awake
switch on more than one occasion. With his head cocked far to the left resting
on his shoulder, and his normally impeccably coiffed hair fallen onto his
forehead, Dan knew the man was asleep.
Touched that
Steve was there, and at once more at ease, he began to
take stock of his condition in greater detail. Legs, neck, backside all feeling
cramped and in need of a stretch…an incredibly uncomfortable knot between his
shoulder blades…stomach growling…eyes stinging slightly…mouth parched…and did
he mention stomach growling?? Definitely
time to get up, Dan decided.
Not
surprisingly, as soon as the patient moved to draw in a deeper breath,
McGarrett jerked awake and looked around the room suspiciously. He ran his hand
quickly over his hair to push it backward out of the way before he noticed
Williams looking at him.
Steve took in
a breath to clear his head as a smile slipped onto his lips. He did a quick
once-over visual inspection of the patient for any outward signs of a problem.
Before he
could speak, Dan broke the silence in a soft, thin voice, “You alright, Steve?”
Instantly
warmed by the fact that the first words out of Dan’s mouth were an
oh-so-typical expression of concern for him, Steve leaned over and gently
grabbed Dan’s arm. “Hey, that’s supposed to be my line.” He swallowed and
asked, “How are YOU feeling?”
Dan winced as
he tried to shift himself to a more comfortable position. “I think I need to
get outta here and get something to eat.”
McGarrett
stood and cranked the bed up to a sitting position as he responded with a soft
laugh. “Oh no you
don’t. You are going to be resting here until Doc gives you the okay to
leave. I’ll bring you something decent to eat.” Dan frowned slightly as Steve,
remembering that Dan had not been conscious for more than a few moments since
his sea rescue, continued. “You had quite
a cavern in your back that the docs had to plug.”
With the
unpleasant memory flooding back into his thoughts, Dan uncomfortably flexed his
shoulders. “It was a diving knife.” He
paused for a few seconds, now mentally embroiled in the struggle for his life
and the life of Mary Ann.
Imagining the
thoughts that were replaying in Williams’ mind, McGarrett spoke. “You put up
one helluva fight, Danno.”
The young man
looked up into the eyes of his mentor, the pain and horror still obvious there
in the weary and anxious expression.
“They were going to do something horrible to-” He stopped suddenly and
drew in a sharp breath. “Mary Ann! She’s alright?”
Steve,
stifling a chill that ran down his spine as Dan confirmed the narrowly-avoided fate of his sister, spoke quickly to calm
the young man before his agitation rose any further. “She’s fine – barely a
scratch on her!”
Dan sighed in
relief and looked down to study the IV line that he just noticed taped to the
back of his hand. “Thank God.”
“Yeah,”
McGarrett agreed, and then sat on the edge of the bed. He struggled to find an
eloquent way to make his point. It always seemed easier for him to say personal
things in the hours before the sun rose.
“Danno…If I
could have chosen anyone in the world to be with Mary Ann through a horrifying
and dangerous situation such as the two of you just survived --” Steve stopped.
No…no…that sounds like I’m
glad he was kidnapped…
He started
again, “I don’t know whether I can explain how sickened and yet simultaneously
relieved at the fact that --” He sighed, exasperated with himself.
“Are you
trying to tell me that you’re glad I was able to save Mary Ann without getting
killed in the process?” Dan could see the moving and overwhelming emotion his
friend was trying to share, and didn’t want him to
agonize too much over the semantics of it all.
Steve had to
smile. Leave it to Danno to distill his point to the degree that he wondered
why it was so hard to say.
“Very, VERY glad. You and Mary Ann are the last two people on the planet that I
would want to lose,” the admission now seemed somehow easier. “Mary Ann is my
only living flesh and blood, and, I know she’s an adult now, but I was the one
for a long time to take care of her.” Steve looked down. “I don’t know whether
I’ll ever be able to shake the sense that it’s my responsibility to make sure
she’s okay – however powerless I may be to protect her.”
McGarrett
looked down and shook his head before he looked up again into the very readable
and pleased face of his friend. “And you
– you. Your brains—your determination—your grit – it’s
what got the two of you to the atoll. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you
hadn’t --” He could feel himself choking up, but he was determined to finish at
least one sentence in this conversation. He gently squeezed Dan’s arm. “If you hadn’t made it.”
There. He’d said it – sort of – and he felt better –
even relieved -- for having said it.
To hear such
praise and sentiment from the person whom he respected and admired above all
others was monumental indeed to Dan Williams. He had been teased about his
adulation for Steve on more than one occasion, but he brushed off the comments,
deciding several months ago that there was nothing wrong with revering those
whose lives were worthy of reverence. And now, to have
the man confess his corresponding respect and brotherly affection was an act
that sealed a crack in the foundation of Williams’ life.
Losing his
family twice over in his childhood – once when his parents were killed in the
attack on
And now, here
it was – a true invitation into the McGarrett ohana – not just the Five-0
family, but a key to the gate – which allowed him access past the reserved
barrier visible to the outside world – that made him a welcome fixture in the
personal life of Steve McGarrett. A bond that had been growing, solidifying, strengthening from their very first meeting was now consciously
recognized by both men. Moisture filled Dan’s eyes as he recognized,
even through the haze of medication, the significance of the conversation.
“It’s a big,
scary world, Steve, without ohana and a little faith,” Dan found the voice to
respond.
“And I DID
have faith in my ohana,” Steve replied softly but emphatically. “And I know you
kept it in kind.”
“I wouldn’t
be here if we both hadn’t kept the faith.” Dan could suddenly not keep his eyes
open. “I knew you’d never give up on us.” He managed to reach out toward Steve,
who took his hand and, after squeezing it for a moment, gently lay it down on Dan’s covered form.
Faith in
ohana – THAT was the foundation of it all. The pre-dawn conversation with his kaikaina would be another gift he would not forget.
**********
Tom and Mary
Ann remained on
Both Dan and
Mary Ann, along with the rest of the Five-0 staff, were asked
by the attorney general to provide statements at the Thore
brothers’ hearing, which was a precursor to a trial that was probably months
away. The purpose was to gather witness testimony under oath while events were
still fresh in their minds. After the nasty turn of events that day, both McGarrett
and Walter Stuart were in lock step in their refusal to allow the Thores to be extradited without
due process in the state of
**********
The hearing
itself was the day after Dan’s release from the hospital. Not yet up to
activity for any length of time, he still insisted upon providing his
testimony. The Thores learned that day that Dan was
not a courier – a fact which seemed to particularly
enrage the younger Thore.
The day was
exhausting and traumatic for both Mary Ann and Dan as they each reported on the
events as best they could recall them. Dan’s statement and subsequent responses
to questions were that of one schooled in the art of clinical testimony, a
simple, un-embellished, neutral reporting of the facts. Mary Ann’s, on the
other hand, was filled with emotional observations,
feelings, and dramatic re-tellings of what she
witnessed and the events she miraculously survived. Between the two witnesses,
a complete picture emerged of what happened and how heroic action and
determined hearts triumphed over the callous and evil natures of the accused.
Steve
marveled at his sister’s resilience as he listened to her impassioned story. He
initially regretted that she would not be spared the
pain and trouble of re-living the nightmare, but as he watched her, he realized
how truly therapeutic it was to share what had happened. He sat there in the
back of the courtroom and considered for a moment how unexpectedly purging it
had been to share his thoughts on the death of his nephew some months ago with
his second-in-command.
The
experience, McGarrett suspected – no, knew – was not a particularly pleasant
one for Williams as Steve now recollected his explosive and teary initial
catharsis. His second-in-command had reacted, not with revulsion or disdain at
his boss’s revelation of his feelings. Instead, he seemed somehow to accept the
pain as his own, knowing/sensing that a burden shared is a lighter load. On
that particular day, McGarrett had to admit that Williams’ tendency towards too
much compassion – what the head of Five-0 called bleeding -- had worked in his
favor. It suddenly became clear to him how Dan had been there, unobtrusively
available to listen – to help carry the painful burden, if he were willing to
share it. And for the first time in his life, he felt
that he could.
**********
The next day,
nine days after the dramatic sea rescue, Mary Ann was
scheduled to return home. She had remained in
It was Dan’s
first time in the office since he’d been dragged away
by Burley, and the staff gathered around him to inquire about his health and
when he would be returning to work.
“Well, I
can’t come back until after my doctor’s appointment on Thursday. Bergman thinks
I’ve got brain damage or something – he’s making me go through a battery of
brain function tests before he okays me for duty,” Dan
grumbled.
“I think you
got brain damage too, but you had it ever since I’ve known you,” Kono mused.
Dan smiled
and let out a humph.
“This from the guy who can’t categorize and file case
reports?”
“Maybe brain
damage helps with that sort of thing,” Kono replied as Chin snickered.
Steve couldn’t help but revel in the typical bantering between his
guys. It made the office feel like home again. He glanced at his watch, knowing
that Mary Ann had to be collected from his place, and spoke. “Come on, Danno! Let’s take our sister to the
airport!”
The
unconscious recognition of Dan’s status in Steve’s mind was not lost on the
rest of the Five-0 staff, who exchanged glances at the remark.
Williams
didn’t seem to notice the “slip” of tongue – instead, he selected a few files
from his IN box, and responded to May’s silently accusing and disapproving
stare, “A little light reading.”
Mary Ann
McGarrett Whalen sat at the gate with her two “brothers” until the last call to
board the plane to
“Any parting
words of wisdom from my two brothers?” Her gaze shifted between the two men, who’d risen with her.
Dan spoke
first, “I have two words – swimming lessons!”
Mary Ann giggled,
and grabbed his hand, “I promise!” And after a teary
hug and a kiss to Dan, she turned to Steve, knowing her big brother would never
pass up an opportunity to counsel.
“I have two
words as well,” he smiled and squeezed her in a tight hug. “Be happy.”
After a quick
reciprocal squeeze, she pulled away from him gently and, eyes brimming with
tears, nodded. The woman marched to the door of the jetway and turned to wave before she disappeared from
sight. The image of a grinning Steve, standing there with his hand resting
Dan’s shoulder would stay with her for a long time.
Mary Ann
McGarrett Whalen was happy that her brother no longer had to weather his storms
alone.