Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Sergeant Duke Lukela didn’t flinch at the screeching tires and slamming doors behind him. In fact, he didn’t even look away from the office building as he felt a tall presence stop beside him, tension flowing toward him in waves like ripples off the road during a heat wave.
“Duke, what do we have?”
Finally, Duke turned to find the focus of Five-0’s leader, Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett, already on the building surrounded by police cruisers.
“Hostage situation. We know that there’s at least one gunman.”
McGarrett’s eyes flitted toward Duke’s before returning to the building. “What do we know about the hostages?”
“There’s at least one. And she’s not a happy camper.”
“Who’s the negotiator?”
“Emerson.” Duke tilted his head toward the cruiser to his left.
“Emerson.”
Everyone tended to use the same disappointed tone when saying that name. Rumour had it that Peter Emerson had been trained as a negotiator with the FBI. After a hostage situation that had gone terribly, terribly wrong, he’d moved to Hawaii where his father, an important businessman on the islands, had managed to get him a job with HPD. So far, his efforts had resulted in zero hostage releases but scores of hospital bills, worker’s compensation reports, and car repairs. He had yet to actively get anyone killed, but he’d only been on the islands two months.
Duke took great pleasure in leaning against his car, watching McGarrett stride over to Emerson and yank the phone out of the man’s grip. Emerson stuttered and spit for a few seconds before realizing that McGarrett was ignoring him and had effectively dismissed him from the scene.
Detective Chin Ho Kelly, McGarrett’s second, appeared, gently taking Emerson’s arm and ushering him away from the building as he whispered to the man. Duke watched Officer Kono Kalakaua and Detective Meka Hanamoa, the other two members of Five-0, flank their boss as he tried to raise the gunman on the phone.
While effective, McGarrett had also caused his own amount of damage to the islands. However, he did his best to make sure that his team did most of the heavy lifting – or rappelling or jumping from building to building. That Five-0 was a little crazy and McGarrett more so was a pretty unanimously held belief among Duke’s fellow officers, but he managed to get results, and that meant a lot. Steve McGarrett might be a haole, but at least he’d been born and spent his first years on the islands, and his father had been an HPD officer before his untimely death a couple of years ago. So as far as it went, everyone would rather see McGarrett and his crazy take over the case and let Emerson return to his office to shuffle papers or drink coffee or do whatever it was he did when he wasn’t endangering officers’ lives.
McGarrett leaned behind Meka and caught Duke’s eye. “Do we know the gunman’s name?”
Duke shrugged. “We could barely hear anything over the screams.”
McGarrett’s look turned fierce. “What screams?”
The phone rang before Duke could explain, and Steve pressed a button, holding it to his ear for a moment before pulling it away quickly. Duke could hear the screams from where he was standing.
“What’s he doing to her?” Kono whispered, horror on her face.
“She’s in labor,” a voice said from behind her.
Duke turned to find a short, blond haired man strapping on an HPD bulletproof vest.
“I don’t recognize you. Did you just join the force?” McGarrett asked.
The man’s expression closed off for a second before smoothing out. “Nope. Not a cop.”
“Then you need to step back for your safety.”
As he closed the last Velcro strap, the haole met McGarrett’s gaze. “I’m going in there. She needs me.”
“Not until I –” McGarrett paused. “Are you wearing a tie?”
Duke almost laughed. It was the first time he could remember seeing McGarrett’s attention diverted during a crisis.
The blond man frowned. “It’s called looking professional, although that word hasn’t seemed to make it over to this part of the world.”
McGarrett blinked. “Well, you can’t go in until I get the gunman to stand down.”
“Brah, it’s dangerous to be up here right now.” Kono put her hand on the man’s arm.
“You’re not going to be able to hear a word that guy says until I can get Manuela to start her breathing exercises. The woman has a lung capacity that would impress even you, GI Joe.”
“He’s Army.”
It was the stranger’s turn to blink.
“I’m a Navy SEAL.”
“Congratulations,” the man said, sounding unimpressed.
“Regardless, you aren’t going in there. It’s not safe.”
“I appreciate your concern, but frankly, it doesn’t look like you’re going to be able to subdue him within the next couple of minutes, and that’s all Manuela has. So you go do your job, and I’ll do mine.”
The man made a move toward the entrance, and McGarrett grabbed his arm. The two men stared silently at each other, ratcheting up the tension, and Duke had to remind himself to breathe. After a few seconds, the stranger backed off, hands up, and McGarrett returned his attention to the phone.
Duke had a feeling his day wasn’t going to be ending all that soon. However, he was curious to see how it was all going to turn out.
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Steve was having a really difficult time carrying on a conversation with the gunman what with all the screaming that – what was the name the man had called her? Manuela – Manuela was doing. While no medical expert, Steve couldn’t believe that all of that noise was just because she was in labor. He’d never heard anyone make sounds like that, even in ugly combat conditions. The man was right about her lung capacity; she could hold that scream for an impressive length of time, only silencing long enough to take another deep breath.
“That… driving… loco, man!” The gunman said.
“Why don’t you just drop your weapon and let us come in to help her,” Steve suggested.
“What?”
“Give up, and we’ll help her!” Steve shouted.
“No way!”
“How about you let her out?”
“She can’t….floor…water everywhere!”
Steve sighed, running his free hand over his face. He turned to Kono. “I need an obstetrician out here yesterday.”
“Want me to see if that blond guy is still here?” She asked. “He might be able to help.”
Steve shook his head. “Get someone we know; someone with credentials.”
Kono nodded and walked off, pulling out her cell.
That man had seemed a little… Steve frowned, trying to come up with a word for the weird twist he’d felt when he’d stared at the guy. Something was off there, and while he couldn’t quite put his thumb on it, he distrusted everything about the stranger, especially since the man’s hands had been shaking. At first, Steve had attributed it to fear, but nothing else about him had made him seem anything but intent on getting into the building. Maybe he was suffering from withdrawal of some sort, which made him even more of a liability. Quickly, Steve shoved his thoughts into a corner, to be taken out later when he had time.
Refocusing, he turned to Meka. “We need eyes in there.”
“Already on it,” Chin said, walking back alone, gesturing toward a van backing up toward them.
“What’d you do with Emerson?” Meka asked.
“I walked him back to his car, thanked him for his assistance, and told him that Five-0 would take it from here.”
“That’s way nicer than I’d have been, Cuz,” Kono said, sliding her phone into the back pocket of her jeans.
“That’s why I did it instead of you,” Chin said, smiling. A technician called him away, and he walked over to the van.
“We have someone en route, less than ten minutes out,” Kono reported to Steve, who nodded in acknowledgment. She tilted her head toward the phone. “How’s that negotiating going?”
“Still can’t hear much over the screams.”
“If that’s what having a baby sounds like, I’m gonna pass,” Kono said with a shudder.
“Amy said it’s all worth it once you see your newborn for the first time,” Meka said.
Kono didn’t look convinced.
“We should have picture within the next five minutes,” Chin called over to them.
Steve heard the screams and wondered how it was that they were getting even louder. “We might not have five minutes.”
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Danny Williams was annoyed, frustrated, and hot. Granted, he seemed to spend most of his days in that frame of mind since moving to this tropical hellhole, but today seemed to mark itself as special.
He’d awakened with the beginnings of a familiar headache and immediately called all the ladies. Manuela didn’t answer her phone, so Danny crawled into his car and drove carefully to her office building, not so much surprised as annoyed to find a hostage situation with Manuela right in the middle of it, screaming her head off.
The guy in charge, the SEAL, was a tall drink of water. A little too intense, but he was in the middle of a hostage negotiation, so Danny supposed that was to be expected. The man’s hand on his arm had forced the headache back a little, something that’d never happened before. And if he hadn’t been trying to stop Danny from walking into the building and taking care of Manuela, Danny might’ve thought about giving the guy his number.
Of course, Danny thought, rolling his eyes, what kind of catch would he make right now? He wasn’t really a one-night stand kind of guy, and he doubted his fold out bed would impress someone who looked like that. Besides, knowing his luck, the man was 110% heterosexual and would beat the stuffing out of him for even thinking of him sexually.
Focusing on the job at hand, Danny made sure Hardbody SEAL’s attention was occupied before nodding to Officer Tabuchi, whose wife Danny had helped through a particularly difficult labor his second month in Hawaii. Tabuchi calmly lifted the police tape so Danny could pass underneath.
He walked up the stairs to the building and stopped just before the front door, his arms out to his sides. “Hey!” Unsure if he could be heard above the wailing, he repeated his shout.
“Who’re you?” A voice called from inside.
Unfortunately, the damn sun was low enough behind him that he couldn’t see inside the building. “The man who can help Maneula.”
“You’re the doula?”
Sighing, Danny nodded.
“But you’re a –”
“Guy? Yeah, I know. Just tell her that Danny’s here.”
The end of a gun waved just outside the door. “How do I know you’re not a cop? You look like a cop.”
Danny sighed again. “Look. I can either stand here and give you the history of my life, or I can come in there and help Manuela deliver that baby before it’s too late for both of them.”
A pause. “What do you mean too late?”
Danny rubbed one of his eyes. “Have you ever heard of a high-risk pregnancy? Well, that’s Manuela.”
“Why’s she here then?”
“Because she refused to stay at home!” Danny shouted, patience gone, headache almost blinding him. “Can I come in now?”
After another pause, the door opened slightly, and Danny nodded, sliding inside, muttering about nosy, talkative gunmen.
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Steve stared at the monitors. “The place seems pretty secure; he’s blocked the emergency exit in the back, so there’s no way we can go through there easily.”
“He’s doing a great job at staying far enough away from the window so it’ll be tough for even a sniper to get a shot,” Kono noted. “But if we could get him closer to the front…”
“It looks like the hostages are between him and the door. I’m guessing that it’s not a coincidence, so we’re going to have a tough time convincing him to move closer,” Chin said.
“And we have at least three hostages,” Steve mused.
Kono pointed toward a body lying on the floor. “One who looks like she’s going to have the baby at any time.”
“You can almost hear her scream through the monitor,” Meka winced, turning his head toward the building entrance. “What’s he doing?”
Steve was tracking the gunman on the monitor. “It looks like he’s going to the door.”
“Even though you told him not to. That takes balls,” Meka said.
“I never told –” Steve looked up and saw the blond man from earlier, standing in front of the building door. “How’d he get there?” He looked around. “Who let him go up there?” Steve took a step toward the door just as it opened wide enough to let the blond man step inside. “Damnit!” He thought quickly. “Meka, find out our mystery interloper’s identity. Kono and Chin, we need to get in there. Now.”
Less than five minutes later, Steve stood at an open window on the second floor of the building checking his equipment. Pressing his earpiece, he said, “We’re only going to have one chance at this. Everyone in place?” He waited until he’d heard from every member of his team before checking his harness one last time.
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As always, when confronted with a woman in labor, Danny’s pains faded, and his world shrank to the woman and the small life inside of her. Kneeling beside the screaming woman, he placed one hand on her forehead, the other on her stomach. “I’m here, honey,” he said quietly.
Her screams became pants. “Danny?” Blowing the bangs out of her eyes, she gave him a tired grin. “What took you so long?”
A thirty-five year-old executive who’d found the love of her life in her forty-year-old female assistant, Maneula wasn’t the type to do anything halfway. A week after their commitment ceremony, the six foot beauty became inseminated, and two weeks after confirmation that she was indeed pregnant, she’d met Danny at the advice of a coworker and hired him on the spot.
Danny liked her. She reminded him of his ex-wife without the memories of blistering fights and hostile custody hearings. Of course, also like his ex, she refused to think that it was absolutely okay for a woman to actually take time off a few days before her scheduled due date. If that’d been the case, she would’ve been resting at her luxurious home instead of lying on the floor in the lobby of her office building, screaming at the poor gunman like he was an intern who’d spilled coffee on some important documents.
She gritted her teeth and panted as a contraction began.
Pulling out his phone and noting the time, he asked, “How long have you been having contractions?” He pinched her hand, hoping she was still hydrated. She didn’t even notice the slight pain.
“I started feeling strange this morning when I came in, but I thought maybe they were Braxton-Hicks,” she said once she regained her breath.
Danny gave her a look. “What did I say about calling me?”
“I know. But I wanted to have this presentation all set up before I went on leave. I swear, I was on my way to the hospital and was going to call you when numbnuts here decided to hold us hostage.” She glared at the gunman for a moment before her eyes went large. “Here comes another one!”
Scooting down to her feet, Danny said, “Remember your breathing.” He panted with her as he nudged her legs apart and lifted her skirt. He couldn’t help lifting an eyebrow at her lack of underwear.
“My water broke!” She yelled in between pants.
“I noticed,” Danny said dryly, noting the dampness on his knees. This was one of the times Danny was thankful that his job allowed him to spend a good amount of time with his clients, because it made moments like this far less awkward. “Wait’ll I tell Grace.”
“As long as it’s my Grace and not yours,” Manuela huffed out a laugh. “She’s the one who made me leave for the hospital. She’s supposed to be meeting me there.”
Danny took a look and realized that Manuela needed a hospital immediately.
Unfortunately, the downside to knowing your clients was that they got to know you right back, and she frowned at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Okay. I want you to remain calm. I can see some of the umbilical cord.”
Manuela’s eyes grew large. She suddenly looked like a scared twelve year old. “The baby’s going to be okay, right?”
“Hey, hey. Remember our breathing. Breathe with me.” He quickly took her through their breathing exercises, aware that the prolonged labor wasn’t helping with the umbilical cord prolapse and that they didn’t have much time.
Danny smiled reassuringly. “I didn’t get this far with you to have either of you check out on me.” He patted her hip. “I need you to get onto your hands and knees.”
“What?” Both the gunman and Manuela asked.
Danny chose to ignore the gunman. “Right now, the baby can press against the umbilical cord and cut off his blood and oxygen supply.”
Manuela took one of Danny’s hands. With his help, she managed to get onto her hands and knees, groaning the entire time.
“Now, I need to you lower your chest to the ground.”
The gunman opened his mouth, and Danny glared at him. “Don’t even start.”
Even though he’d seen the ambulance outside, Danny also knew that Manuela and the baby didn’t have much time. He placed his hands on her hips and took a deep breath.
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With the exception of Steve crashing through the picture window, the entire operation was a little anticlimactic. He didn’t even have to fire his weapon since the gunman, who turned out to be barely old enough to drink liquor legally, had dropped the gun in surprise. And then the blond man had casually stuck out a leg and tripped the kid, allowing Steve to straddle and cuff him within seconds.
Steve had waited until the paramedics loaded Manuela and screaming baby onto the gurney and wheeled them out of the room before rounding on the man. “What did you think you were doing? You could’ve been killed!”
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, the man looked up and rolled his eyes, holding his arms wide. “And yet, here I am, not a scratch on me.”
“You had no idea what you were going to face in here!”
“You happy yelling at the guy on the floor, or are you gonna help me up?” Unperturbed, the man arched an eyebrow and held out his hand, wiggling his fingers.
Sighing, Steve pulled the man to standing. “From now on, when I tell you to stay behind the police tape, stay behind the police tape!”
“You might do this kind of thing on a regular basis, but it’s not my current choice of profession.” The man blinked a few times, the color draining from his face, before he stumbled back.
Fortunately, Chin had just walked into the building and managed to brace him before fell. “You okay there?”
Rubbing a hand over his face, the man righted himself. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”
Steve felt an unfamiliar rush of concern as he grabbed the man’s arm. “Let’s get one of the EMT’s to take a look at you.”
“I’m fine,” the man said. “I just stood up too fast.”
Steve wasn’t buying it, but he didn’t have any leverage to force the man to get a checkup. It didn’t stop him from trying, though. “They’re sitting out there with nothing to do. You go over there, get checked out, and I’ll send Kono over to get your statement.”
“You want a statement? The guy let me in, I helped Manuela deliver her baby, you came crashing in like Spiderman, and it was all over. Statement complete.”
Frustrated, Steve looked over to Chin for help, but his second was too busy smiling. He didn’t even have the decency to try to wipe the smirk off his face when he caught Steve’s eye.
Steve didn’t know if it were the bluster or the fact that he was genuinely okay, but the color was returning to the man’s face. Reluctantly, he let go of the man’s arm.
Finally, Chin took mercy on Steve. “Why don’t I walk you over there?”
“If you want to walk me somewhere, why don’t you walk me to my car? I had to park illegally, and you know that despite all of this craziness, the one meter maid focused on writing her tickets is going to have had a field day on my car. I swear, if she had it towed…” Chin and the man disappeared, the man still talking and waving his arms.
Steve had no idea how long he stood there, ridiculous smile on his face, before Kono touched his shoulder and grabbed his attention.