Title: Open Water

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Unfortunately they are still not mine. I hope CBS and whoever owns the rights to Five-0 doesn't mind too much that I'm borrowing them for a short while. I promise to put them back when I'm done. They might even be in better condition afterwards. ;-)

Summary: An exploration of the sea life around Oahu. Well, sort of. ;-)

Characters: Steve McGarrett, Danny Williams, Catherine Rollins, Chin Ho Kelly, Kono Kalakaua, Grace Williams, Max Bergman, Governor Denning, well, actually I think everyone makes an appearance. :-)

A/N: This story is mostly about action, drama, hurt, comfort, humor, teamwork, friendship and romance. I hope it has something for everyone. ;-)

As always the facts told in this story are heavily researched and accurate to the best of my knowledge. But as always some facts are boring, and therefore needed some tweaking. ;-) Always remember this is for enjoyment, not to get a doctorate.

The storytelling is a bit different with this one. One half is in chronological order, but the other half is in episodic form. I hope you will enjoy it.

You will have the pleasure of reading a chapter written by Cokie316 later in the story. I'll let you know when we come to it.

Thank you: Thank you Cokie316 for being a part of this story, and for coming up with such a great idea. You again made this so much fun. I just love our research. ;-)

Thanks to Sherry57 for getting over this thing and finding all those nasty little grammar things we overlooked.

Open Water – Chapter 01 – The Beginning

North Shore - Saturday, 0600 hours

Steve knew he was fucked the second he hit the water. He knew it even before the board hit him in the head and almost knocked him out.

He didn't know for sure how it happened, but suddenly the wave broke and he had the worst wipe-out of his life.

As if it wasn't enough that he was smashed in the head by his own board and pushed down by tons of water, no, he also had to lose his damn board and get caught in a current that pulled him out to sea.

Considering all that, it might not have been his brightest idea to come surfing in the wee hours of this not-so-sunny Saturday morning. This had been one of his favorite spots in his youth because it was away from all the tourists, but it had been quite a while since he had surfed the bigger waves out here. Today, the surf was not as high as it normally was, and that was why Steve decided to go out early, before the predicted bad weather and storm hit. No surfing or swimming would be possible then; only the crazy surfers would go out in those conditions. And Steve was not one of the crazies.

Even though Steve loved to surf, and he was not bad at it, he was not suicidal and knew that the really big waves were not for him. His skillset was not good enough for that. But that freak wave had completely blindsided him and thrown him off his game.

Steve tried to orient himself, but it was not easy. The surf was pretty high out here, and he only saw glimpses of the island in the distance. He wondered for a second how he had managed to be that far away from shore in such a short amount of time. His head hammered away and the salt water stung, so he was pretty sure he had a small cut where the board had hit him. Hopefully it wouldn't bleed for too long.

Thankfully his training kicked in as soon as he had hit the water and went under. When the wave buried him and pushed him down to the bottom, whirling him around, he didn't panic. He simply waited out the wave and then came back to the surface. Breaking through, gasping for air.

Steve treaded water and hoped the pounding in his head would stop. It was nauseating and he was pretty sure had there been anything in his stomach he would have fed the fishes by now. A concussion was a pretty sure bet.

Steve knew that trying to swim back to shore was useless, he would never make it against the strong outward current. He could actually feel the pull it had on him, he was already a lot farther out than just a minute ago. Besides where he was now it would surely be deadly to come too close to shore. The waves would smash him into the reef that was to the side of the surfable waters. Trying to make landfall there would end in his death. So the only chance he had was to swim with the current and bide his time.

This is really bad, Steve thought as he debated whether to start swimming or not. Swimming would make him lose body heat, but it might get him out of the current if he managed to swim diagonally to the shore until he could make a break for it. Loss of body heat was not a concern right now, but could be a problem if he had to stay in the water for a long time. And if he couldn't get out of the current, well, then it would be a very long time he had to tread water.

H50 – H50 – H50

Aloha Marketplace – 43 hours earlier - Thursday 1130 hours

"What are you talking about?" Steve McGarrett looked at his friend and had no idea what was the matter with him today. All day Danny had been on edge and Steve was worried it might have something to do with Gracie.

"I'm talking about you and your little lieutenant."

"My what? You did not just say that." Steve was no longer amused. It was one thing to call him names; Steve had no problem with that, but his girlfriend? He was not going to tolerate that. "What the hell has gotten into you today?"

"Nothing."

"Danny! Wait," Steve called after his friend and hurried to catch up to him. "Danny!"

"What?"

"Will you please tell me what's the matter? Did I do something to upset you?" Steve didn't think he had done or said anything that could have made his partner mad. They had had a quiet day at the office, a rather seldom occurrence. They hadn't left the office all day.

"Yes. Yes, you did, Steven." Danny had finally stopped and looked accusingly at Steve.

"Oh. What did I do?" Steve looked totally perplexed at his friend.

"You really don't know, do you?"

"No, Danny. I'm sorry, but I have no idea."

They had almost reached their destination, the "Cookie-Parlor" at the Aloha Marketplace; a newly opened restaurant that served some of the best desserts, cakes and of course cookies on the islands.

"You broke your promise to Grace."

"What? I… what?" Steve was sure that he didn't have any pending promises. Not to Gracie or anyone else.

"You promised us—"

"US?" Steve looked at Danny, hoping to get an explanation.

"Gracie and I. You promised to take us to the Observatory on the Big Island the next weekend we had off. And that would be this weekend. But you told me that you and Catherine are planning a trip to some fancy resort, and—"

"Danny! First of all we are not going on vacation to some fancy resort, as you call it," Steve interrupted him using air quotes for the resort. "Catherine's parents are coming over for a visit and her dad insisted on staying at the resort instead of my place. And second, when the hell did I promise to take you guys anywhere?" Steve really had no memory of anything like that.

"You said that a few weeks ago, but we talked about it yesterday in the car. You said 'Okay'."

"Danny, I'm sorry. I don't remember," Steve had to admit. "Was that on the way back from the factory?"

"Yeah."

"Um, Danny, I'm sorry, but I kind of, eh, zoned out for a bit on the way back. Sorry." On their way back yesterday Steve had kind of tuned Danny out. He hadn't meant to, but Danny was telling him again about his trip to Jersey in a couple of weeks. And if Steve was honest he just didn't want to listen to it anymore. It was great to hear about it the first ten times, and he was really happy for Danny that he was able to go back to see his family. He really was. But after hearing about it every damn day for the last ten days, well, it was getting on his nerves, best friend or not. So when Danny had started again about the greatness of New Jersey, Steve had simply tuned him out. It had obviously been ill timed.

"But you said okay, and I told Grace you would take us," Danny told him. He was not in the best mood himself and this misunderstanding was getting out of hand.

"We will think of something, Danny. Don't worry, okay? I'll get you there." Steve was sure he would be able to organize the trip even though he might not be able to go with them. "That is why you are pissed at me and have been avoiding me for the last few hours?"

"Well…"

"Ah, Danny. I'm sorry, okay? You know I'd take Gracie anywhere she wanted... or you for that matter." Sometimes Steve couldn't understand his friend. Most of the times he wouldn't shut up, but sometimes when he should talk, he kept quiet.

"Who is Cath with?" Danny asked and pointed to the two women standing in front of the restaurant.

"Her mother. Relax, D, she is nothing like my mom," Steve told his partner with laughter in his voice.

"That's good. One Doris is more than enough, thank you very much."

Steve chuckled at that and waved to his girlfriend and her mother. And not even a second later, all hell broke loose.

H50 – H50 – H50

Witnesses later said it happened just like in the movies. Some said they were reminded of the beginning of Die Hard with a Vengeance. The window front of the restaurant was blasted out and people were knocked off their feet.

Glass was flying with high velocity, as were other light and not so light objects that were in the path of the shockwave of the explosion.

Thankfully all windows had been fitted with safety glass, so the shattered window panes didn't turn into deadly projectiles. The rain of glass only resulted in minor injuries.

But enough people were lying scattered on the ground. Groaning and crying from the pain of broken bones and other blast injuries. But others were lying motionless and still.

And then there were the ones coming back to their feet trying to orient themselves and helping other more seriously injured people.

Danny was one of those helping people. He looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened. His gaze fell on his partner, lying just a few feet from him.

Steve was lying on his stomach and wasn't moving.

"Steve!"

H50 – H50 – H50

Steve could feel a hand on his back and hear Danny calling out to him. He was sure the hand also belonged to his partner. But his brain still tried to come up with the solution as to why he was lying on his belly with a ringing in his ears and a throbbing pain behind his temple.

"D?"

"That's it, Steve. Come on, talk to me."

"Wha' happen'?" Steve asked as he slowly turned on his back and opened his eyes to blink up at Danny, who was hovering over him.

Steve reached up to his still throbbing head. He touched the side of it, expecting a gaping hole, but he couldn't find any blood-gushing wounds.

"I think something struck you on the temple. The explosion—"

It was then that the memory slammed into Steve. "Cath!" Steve called out and jumped up, only to stumble into Danny when the head rush hit him.

"Whoa there," Danny grabbed his unsteady friend and held him upright.

Steve took a moment to get his bearings and then pushed away from Danny. He now saw the chaos around them. And his gaze fell on his girlfriend a few feet away.

"Catherine," he called again and was next to her a second later. "Are you okay?"

Cath looked up from her task of turning an unconscious woman into the safety position.

"I'm good. Are you two okay?"

"Fine. What about your mom?" Steve asked as he looked around for Catherine's mother.

"I'm here, Steve," Nancy Rollins called and came over to them with a medical kit in hand.

Steve wondered where she had gotten it from so quickly. "Are you okay?"

"We're not hurt," she told him.

Steve watched Catherine stand up from her kneeling position next to the injured woman and let her mother take over. He knew that she was in good hands; Nancy was a medical doctor after all.

They could hear sirens in the near distance and knew help would be here in a matter of minutes. They helped as best they could, but soon they were more in the way than of any help when the professionals arrived.

Steve, Danny and Cath stepped back and let the pros do the job. Cath's mom, a surgeon on vacation in paradise, lent her expertise and helped where she could. Soon the place was swamped with HPD, the fire department, even a SWAT team.

Steve could see a K9 unit checking for another bomb threat. As long as they didn't know what caused the explosion they had to handle this as an attack.

The task force leader activated a cold pack he was handed by one of the medics and held it to the side of his aching head. Hopefully avoiding any more bruising. His head hurt from the impact from whatever struck him on the temple, but all in all he felt fine.

"Steve, you okay?" Danny asked, remembering him lying on the ground, out cold, not so long ago.

"Yeah, just a bruise, I'm fine. What did the chief have to say?" While Steve had talked to the SWAT team leader, Danny had talked to the Fire Chief.

"Not much. No fire, no dangerous gases or fumes. Forensics need to determine the cause of the explosion. Any news on your side?" Danny asked as he closely examined his friend's head. Very much to Steve's annoyance.

"No obvious explosive devices so far. They have declared the scene safe. Did the chief give you a number of injured?"

"Chief said fifteen, more or less seriously injured, not counting minor injuries like yours. No casualties, no critically injured."

"That could have been a lot worse. Sounds like this had not been aimed to cause the maximum damage," Steve said and blinked at Danny who suddenly wavered out of focus.

"Hey, Steve, you okay?" Of course Danny noticed and grabbed his friend's arm to get his attention.

"Uh huh. A little dizzy," Steve admitted.

"Come on, you need to get checked out." Danny tried to steer Steve into the direction of one of the ambulances still on the scene.

"No, Danny, really, I'm fine."

"Danny is right, you don't look fine, Steve. At least let mom take a look at you," Cath argued in the hope that Steve would concede.

"Fine. But I'm telling you it's a waste of time. I'm fine."

Ten minutes later Catherine's mother indeed told them that Steve was fine, or that he at least didn't show signs of a concussion. She never actually used the word 'fine'. Rather, she said he should watch out for any developing signs of nausea, dizziness, mood swings, severe headache, blurry vision and the like.

"I told you I'm fine. Can we move on now and do our job?" Steve grumbled when he climbed out of the ambulance, still holding the cold pack to his throbbing head. He had to admit the spot on the temple was rather tender and his head hurt like a bitch.

H50 – H50 – H50

Steve was pulled from his memories by a wave rolling over him. The waves were getting higher already, he had been sure that the incoming storm was a long way from making landfall. Or in his case, reaching the spot of the ocean Steve was currently bobbing in.

He was still caught in the strong outward current and tried as he might was not able to swim out of it. Steve gently touched his head that was now again throbbing with great intensity, he was sure that he now did have a concussion. What the explosion hadn't managed, his surf board had.

Steve turned over onto his back and floated, giving up on swimming for a moment. He was dizzy and his vision wavered in and out. He needed to rest, whether he wanted to or not. He couldn't risk passing out, not while in the water without a life vest or any other floating device. Even as a SEAL he couldn't keep his head above water when unconscious.

He floated on his back and again felt the strong current out to sea. His only hope was that someone was going to miss him soon and start searching for him. But he didn't see that happening.

Cath was with her parents on the Big Island, and he was supposed to meet them later this evening. Chin was still in the hospital, and Kono had taken off with Adam. That left his mom, who was who knows where with Mick; and Danny. Steve hoped Danny would either try to call him or stop by the house this afternoon instead of heading straight to the airstrip to join him on the flight to the Big Island. Steve was supposed to take Gracie and Danny with him when he flew to meet Catherine. But that was still many hours from now. It was not even 0630 and this early in the morning, Danny would still be in dreamland, and not even thinking about getting up for another few hours.

So, for now Steve was on his own. And watching the waves around him, the only thing he could actually see, was not improving his mood.

H50 – H50 – H50

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