FanFic: "Ground Fire" (Hawaii Five-0) - Chapter 12 of ??
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CHAPTER TWELVE
Kono woke shortly after the small Coast Guard contingent arrived. The addition of more human bodies and focused activity filled the quiet void she'd fallen so peacefully into and she snapped her eyes open with a start. For a brief instant, the ache in her head flared and a pang of nausea made her lightly cough.
There were more people and more flashlights brightening the small area where they huddled. Conversation was louder and fraught with urgency. The scent of rain was markedly stronger too, and Kono felt as if the air was already flooded with water, the humidity was so thick. Her hair was uncomfortably wet, as was her clothing. Without moving too much, Kono focused on the situation at hand. The medic and Chin were talking down by her feet but practically above where she lay. Dismally, she realized they were discussing dehydration and very obvious signs of a severe concussion. It didn't take long for her mind to catch up with what was happening, yet she flinched when she realized the medic suddenly had her arm and was in the process of inserting an intravenous line for fluids.
"Kono." A smile broke out across Chin's face as he crept closer and did a double-take into eyes that were fatigued but happily wide open. "You had a nice rest, cuz. How do you feel?" He grinned in relief when she smiled in return while the medic continued to evaluate her for being moved.
"How's Danny?" Her own personal physical complaints were about the same, but her one track mind negated any concern about that condition as she neatly changed the subject. Chin's raised eyebrow was almost comical if not for the worry which lurked so blatantly across his face. Still elevated on the backpack, she could just see over the medic's shoulder to where Steve and two other Coast Guardsmen flanked Danny's body on the stretcher.
When he didn't answer fast enough, Kono tried to get up to see for herself. "Chin? How is he?" Her resultant gasp as pain rocketed sharply through her head had the medic instantly pushing her back.
"No, no! Just relax. Breathe for me .. nice and slow." The medic was grim-faced as he kept one hand on her shoulder and the other fumbling for the blood pressure gauge. Eyes tightly closed against an onslaught of unexpected migraine-like stabbing pain, his patient was suddenly gray-faced and near to an unanticipated round of dry-heaves. Both of which she could ill-afford due to her level of exhaustion and dehydrated state.
"Kono! Do what he says, cuz. Try to control your breathing." On her opposite side, Chin was now on his knees and unwinding spasmodically clenched fingers. "You need to stay down with the IV, but Danny's going to be fine."
The sudden spike in pain and alarming change to her pallor had Chin staring in a frightened askance at the medic. The serious nod was less than soothing though as he sighed at the results of her much too fast reaction. Besides the physical pain and nausea, her blood pressure had reached an upper limit which he didn't like. "She needs to rest and not get so worked up."
"Do you hear that?" Chin turned back to his cousin with a determined commanding look. His quiet demeanor and lower voice demanded that she relax and allow the others to manage the situation. "He's going to be okay, Kono. Everything's under control."
But while Chin certainly wasn't lying, the ongoing trek to get to safer ground and real medical care was an ongoing concern. Besides worrying about her, it was the larger reason his expression remained so serious. The medic had just left Danny's side after a professionally focused examination from head to foot. He had confirmed what they suspected but then had thrown in a minor concussion, dehydration and an elevated temperature for good measure. Knuckling Danny's sternum aggressively, the medic had also failed at rousing him which added insult to injury.
The medic was concerned, Chin was badly troubled, and Steve's mood was increasingly foul.
"We have him on a fresh canister of oxygen and ran a second I.V. to push more fluids." Interrupting Chin, the medic answered her question with even more details while continuing his work. Of the three victims, the detective needed the most urgent care followed by the female officer he was now tending. The third, older man was exhausted, had an elevated temperature, and was also dehydrated. On his first cursory look, the medic had mentioned using another stretcher for him but the criminal's reaction had been quite inflammatory. In turn, the Five-0 Commander had summarily put his foot down to squash Tortorro's adamant personal decision; their third victim would indeed be carted out as well.
"Has Danny woken up?" Forcing her eyes back open, Kono determinedly pushed down the nausea with another light cough. It rattled the sharp pressure in her aching head and she winced as she pressed on. The one question was simple enough. Very simple in fact, but Chin's continued severity was telling. Looking worriedly from her cousin to the medic, Kono settled on the face of the medic as she pushed harder. "That's not good. It can't be good. Right?"
Heaving in a loud breath, the medic frowned before giving the best reply he could think of. "Soup to nuts? You've all been through a plane crash and a gun battle followed by some crazy-ass run through a jungle." He shrugged as he lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"In the middle of the night. Injured and hiding from even more ... crazies." He said the last word in a conspiratorial hissed whisper for added impact. Above the dark canopy, lightning flashed high behind the clouds again as wind picked up to rustle leaves, branches and vines. Using both hands, he pointed skywards as if that had also gone berserk while grinning at the increasing
sounds of Mother Nature.
"With weather blowing in." The medic let his words linger long enough for Kono to eke out a small smile. He patted her shoulder again before getting to his feet to stow his gear. "Welcome to dessert. We're going to get you all home and by tomorrow morning, I'm sure you're all going to be feeling much better. But I need you to stay down for me and to not get so worked up."
She frowned and gazed unhappily up at Chin, but there was nothing else he could share. As an answer to her original question, the medic's soliloquy was only adequate in temporarily defusing the discussion.
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Duke Lukela was furious when he learned that Andrea Winston had vanished from her hotel room. He'd gained significant ground with CSU's assistance, so much so that two potential locations were being discussed as viable options in locating Trish Pratt. The antagonist was in their midst; yet that was also the coupe de grace.
He had control of critical knowledge and that had given him power. Now half of that had been irretrievably lost due to nothing more than lack of experience.
The junior HPD officer was standing at attention with his superior officer standing a hairs-breadth from his very nose. Not daring to fidget or even breathe, he stared straight ahead, red-faced and with his back literally slammed into the ornate wallpaper of the hotel's long fifth-floor corridor.
"No, sir." The much younger officer was clueless to what he'd done; to the gaffe he'd committed by not being more aware of the brief activity between rooms. He didn't understand when it happened, let alone how. He hadn't left his post and he'd been diligent in monitoring everyone who had come and gone. He could vouch that no one, other than the same two hotel staff, had brought and then subsequently removed dinners amongst those they were watching.
"No, sir." Eyes wide at the continued badgering, he stopped himself from shaking his head to compound his vow. There hadn't been a sound from any room; nothing out of the ordinary as he dutifully stood watch.
"Two hotel staff?" Nailing his forefinger painfully into the thin shoulder, Duke demanded action that would teach the officer something of value before he'd be summarily written up the very next day. "Find and bring me those two. I want them and their manager here .. now .. immediately."
"Yes, sir." Stuck in place, he was only capable of two responses to his irate Sergeant's questions. Yes, sir or no, sir depending upon the correct and most truthful answer. What he didn't expect was the fisted pull on his uniform collar that propelled him from the wall and partly down the corridor.
"Then do it!" Lukela barked loudly to spur him on to retrieve the people in question. As the officer's feet finally picked up a pace from an awkward stumble to purposeful jog, Duke angrily ran his hand through his thinning hair. The junior HPD officer was more than good at the job; he was a top of the class graduate, typically reliable and very astute. But in many ways, as was just proven, also green as grass.
"Damn it." Lukela didn't even try to be quiet at that point. Green as grass had been up against a much more devious foe. Andrea Winston had been weaned on deceit and trickery; whatever it was which she had so cleanly orchestrated had come to her as easily as breathing.
Still, Duke's driven tirade in the hallway was well-founded based upon an embarrassing failure to maintain his responsibilities while simultaneously conducting an investigation. He growled as his phone vibrated against his hip.
"Lukela." Completely distracted, his own name was growled out in a similar angry fashion as he spun in a hectically paced circle. Wedging the phone to his ear, he paused mid-stomp to ground out one hopeful word. "Where?"
~ to be continued ~
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