Disclaimer: I most certainly do not own Hawaii Five-0. Or any other television series, for that matter.

Prologue

His ears are ringing and it has nothing to do with the explosion he's just survived.

This lecture is worthy of the Danny Williams hall of fame. Fifth place, maybe tied for fourth. He's been at it for thirteen minutes without pausing for air, and if he doesn't let up soon, Steve may be forced to press the call button for the nurse to administer oxygen. But for now, Danny seems to be holding his own without becoming preoccupied with a task as time consuming as breathing.

"Tell me again," he says, bringing his pacing to a halt directly in front of Steve's bed. "How much time was left on the timer when you discovered the bomb?"

Steve sighs. "We've established how much time-"

"Twenty-four seconds. Now, I'm not an expert on the subject, so I'll ask you. Is twenty-four seconds enough time to get out of that warehouse, into the parking lot, unscathed?"

That's not what happened in their case. Steve has scratches and cuts along the left side of his body, looks like he went three rounds with a cheese grater and lost. His shoulder is especially painful, but at least it's not his shooting arm. Kono's lighter, so she was thrown a little further, and her bad knee took the brunt of the damage. So no, they were not unscathed.

"Probably," he admits, "If you rush."

"Well, there is bomb on the premises, so yes, you're in quite the hurry. Better question. Is twenty-four seconds enough time to attempt a search of the top floor of that premises and still get out unscathed?"

Kono snickers from her bed across the room, maybe a little too courageous from the pain meds being pumped into her, and Danny whirls around to face his new target. "Something funny, Officer Kalakaua? Is there anything funny about where we are right now?"

She shakes her head, halfheartedly, and Steve sighs in relief, grateful to have his partner's attention directed elsewhere. Danny narrows his eyes, now officially on the offensive. "Are you laughing, Lietenant Kelly?"

Chin is most certainly not laughing from his position next to his cousin's bed. In fact, Steve's not sure that the older man will crack a smile for weeks after seeing the damage done to the knee that ended Kono's surfing career. Slowly, he shakes his head, giving Kono a disappointed look that prods at her drug-addled mind and leaves her squirming.

"Sorry, cuz."

Danny clears his throat.

"Sorry, brah."

Slightly deflated, the detective sighs and turns to address both of them. "Do not ever do this again."

He gets mumbled agreements in response and rolls his eyes, but seems to relax. "We have to get back to work," he says, glancing apologetically at Chin, who wants to wait for the orthopedist to come and check Kono's knee. "Stay here. Don't give anyone any trouble or so help me-"

"We'll be fine," Steve promises. "Call if you get anything on Downey's whereabouts."

The two uninjured members of Five-0 exchange a long look, and Steve knows he's not going to like what the have to say. "You have a head injury you're not telling us about?" Danny asks finally, flipping through his partner's chart like he knows what he's looking for. "We cleared Downey and his boys."

"For murder, yes. But not for planting the bomb in the warehouse."

They make uncomfortable eye contact, again. "What? What's with the looks?"

Chin is gently patting his cousin's ankle through her blanket, looking torn between his loyalty to Steve and his own very firm grasp on reality. "Steve, it's not likely that they had anything to do with the bombing. They only got out of lock up twenty minutes before it happened."

"I saw Downey, okay," Steve insists, carefully rotating his shoulder as he pulled himself into a more upright position. "Ask Kono."

Kono shifts uneasily, and Steve realizes that she was face down in the parking lot, clutching her knee, while Downey was making his escape. "He was there. Just look into it."

Nodding slightly, Danny puts the chart back on the bed and announces that they really have to get back to catching the real murderer now, but when Steve presses, he agrees. "Yeah, babe. We'll try." Chin stands to join him, but pauses to drop a quick kiss to Kono's forehead. "Listen to the doctors," he orders, "Don't make me call your mother."

She feigns a shudder and offers her cousin a winning smile, hoping to make him forget that he's supposed to be angry with her. He sees right through it, but smiles back anyway, before joining Danny in the hallway.

When they're alone, Steve and Kono are quiet, nursing their injured limbs and egos, until Kono breaks the ice. "Well, this sucks."

Steve grins.

The orthopedist does eventually come to evaluate her knee, so Kono disappears behind the curtain, and he doesn't hear anything other than pained hisses for the next few minutes. While she and the doctor are talking lowly, Steve takes a minute to think about their case and how he's going to close it from a hospital bed.

Tanner Downey flew in to visit his sister, the wife of their murder victim, a suspicious three days before his brother-in-law's death. For some reason, he brought four of his associates with him for this little family reunion, and Five-0's suspicions were immediately raised. Turns out, Downey's brother-in-law owed him a return on a pretty substantial loan, and he and his buddies came to Hawaii to collect. When he couldn't come up with the money, Downey set up shop in his sister's garage. Steve suspected that they were bringing automatic weapons from the mainland to sell on the island, but before they could bust him, Downey scrounged up an alibi for their murder case.

They'd have no reason to investigate them further if Steve wasn't so sure that he'd seen the crew at the scene of the explosion, a warehouse that their murder victim was making payments on. Since the man could barely afford his monthly grocery bill, chances were good that Downey was using his brother-in-law's name to rent the warehouse, not that there was any way to prove it after the fire. Probably, he was on the run and getting farther every minute.

Which was exactly why he had to get back to business.

He's made a decision by the time the doctor leaves, and he's too busy turning it over in his head to notice how quiet Kono's become.

"Everything okay?" he asks. "What did the doc say?"

Kono shrugs, sucking on her bottom lip and looking kind of dejected. "Yeah, boss. All good."

He'd be worried, but she seems to perk up when he explains his plan, and by the time they're on their feet again, pulling their street clothes back on, she seems cheerful at the thought of the prison break they're about to stage.

Steve scowls as he pulls his shirt on, surprised by how much pain he's still feeling, even with the meds he's on. The curtain's drawn, but he can hear Kono hopping into her jeans, swearing when she puts too much weight on her knee. When she throws the curtain back, her hair is mussed and he's pretty sure her shirt is on backwards, but instead of commenting, he nod toward the crutches that are leaning against the wall, "Need those?"

"Optional," Kono clarifies, giving him the same smile she used to charm her cousin earlier. It actually works on Steve, who hasn't had enough practice to properly resist, so he leaves the crutches where they are and lets her lean on his injured shoulder as they shuffle out into the hallway.

Off to a good start.