December 29, 1984
Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams sat
at one last lunch at Uncle Lee’s as the head and second-in-command of Hawaii
Five-O. Tomorrow – Steve’s birthday - would be his last day at the helm; after
that, he would retire and turn things over to Danny.
During lunch, Steve seemed to alternate
between being lost in thought and being impatient.
“Everything OK, Steve?” Danny asked,
then joked, “Having second thoughts?”
Steve laughed. “No, Danno. You’ll still
get the keys after tomorrow. I forgot, though, that I need to make a stop
after lunch.”
“Anything I can help with?” Danny asked.
“No. Go ahead back to the office. I’ll
catch up.”
As close a friendship as Steve and Danny
had, Steve was reluctant to talk – at least, right now - about the stop he was
going to make. It harked back to a tense time, when Steve’s life had been at
stake.
It had been roughly 16 years before,
when Steve had offered himself as a hostage at Oahu State Prison. Charlie
Swanson, whom Steve had nailed for theft in an undercover operation, had been
the hostage taker, frustrated by the way he was treated by other prisoners and
the system.
Danny and the late Chin Ho Kelly had
been adamant that Steve not trade himself for another hostage because of the
threats of other prisoners, including “Big Chicken,” a drug pusher responsible
for the addiction and deaths of young people. Steve had gone in, banking on
Charlie’s honor. Charlie had shot Frank, a fellow prisoner, had taken seven
hostages, including Steve, and had panicked at times. Big Chicken had attacked
Steve. But in the end, Charlie had asked for a list of prison problems to be
published, which they were. In return, he turned himself in and ended the
standoff.
After that, Charlie had been a model
prisoner. A new jail was eventually built. But with the rise of the cocaine
trade and persistent problems with mob bosses, the new jail became as
overcrowded as the old one had been.
There were new issues. This jail was
also a sieve, with cocaine now the drug of choice. And there was a strange
illness called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome – AIDS for short. The
disease had claimed some prisoners, Big Chicken among them.
Today, though, Steve was going to see a
success story – Charlie. About a year ago, he had gotten out of jail, given
time off for good behavior or its new description, “gain time.”
Steve disliked the label. Gain
nothing, he thought. Anyone in that place loses time.
Danny paid the bill, which earned some
teasing from Steve, but not as much as usual. He was obviously preoccupied.
As Danny returned to the office, Steve
took the Mercury and headed in the opposite direction, until he reached
Jason’s Auto Repair. He pulled in.
Jason Ling, the shop owner, greeted him as he got out of the
car. “Boy, Steve,” he teased. “One day from retirement and you’re still
bringing this car in?”
Steve chuckled. “Lots of mileage,” he
said. “Not the car. Me.”
Jason laughed. “You’ve got lots of miles
to go yet, Steve,” he said.
“Miles to go before I sleep, huh?” Steve
said. “Listen, is Charlie around?”
Jason nodded. “Yeah, he‘s working on one
of the cars. I’ll go get him.”
As Steve waited, he remembered one of
Charlie’s demands during the prison standoff was a new hobby shop. It had
eventually been granted, and Charlie had taken full advantage, learning about
auto repair. Just after Charlie had been released, Steve had mentioned him to
Jason, who immediately hired him. It was not unusual for Jason to give breaks
to troubled people, younger and older. Steve smiled at the fact that he’d been
given the opportunity, in this job, to meet many Jason Lings. He’d also met
many Charlie Swansons, people in trouble who had turned their lives around.
His thoughts were interrupted by the
approach of a graying man, wiping his hands on a towel. “McGarrett,” Charlie
said.
He reached Steve, and the two men shook
hands. “How are you, Charlie?” Steve asked.
“Can’t complain,” Charlie said.
“Glad to hear it,” Steve said. “I just
wanted to come out and see you one last time before I leave the post.”
“Yeah. Tomorrow, right?” Charlie asked.
Steve nodded. “What are you gonna do?” Charlie asked.
“Sail. Paint. Travel,” Steve said. “And
probably be a consultant to Five-O for a while, at least until Danny Williams
gets the full hang of the job.”
“Can’t get the cop out, eh McGarrett?”
Charlie asked.
Steve chuckled. “Probably not entirely,”
he said. “What about you?”
“I had plenty of time to do nothing in
prison,” Charlie said. “And even before that, as a thief. You know, McGarrett,
I never really worked an honest day until I got this job. And I like it a lot.
I’ll do it as long as I can.”
“Good for you,” Steve said.
“It’s your fault, you know,” Charlie
said. “During that standoff.”
“How’s that?” Steve asked.
“You listened to me,” Charlie said. “You
listened. Nobody’d ever done that before. Nobody. And you had good reason to
plug me. But you heard me out.”
“You had a lot to say, Charlie, and it
was important,” Steve said.
“Yeah, but……Man, if I could take one
thing back, it was shooting Frank,” Charlie said. “Even for all the abuse I
took from him and the others.”
“He recovered,” Steve said. “And you
were defending yourself.”
Charlie sighed. “I wish I hadn’t lost my
head.”
“Well, let’s look at it as the day you
started to find yourself, huh?” Steve said. “The day you started to set
yourself free.”
Charlie nodded. “Thank you, McGarrett,”
he said, extending his hand again.
Steve shook it. “Thank you, Charlie, for
proving I was right to believe in you.”
Steve got back in his car and started
it. Charlie waved, then turned around and walked back into the garage.
As Steve drove back to the Iolani
Palace, he remembered the end of the standoff, when he’d walked out into the
prison courtyard, looked up and contrasted the prison with the freedom on the
outside. He parked at the Palace and went upstairs to the office that was his
for one more day.
Danny was waiting. “So, want to tell me
where you were?” he asked.
“Yeah, Danno,” Steve said. “I was seeing
a free man.”