A/N: See disclaimer previous. Also, the chapter in which Gracie gets rescued and all ends well like it should. Thank you so much for your reviews and comments and reading! It's much appreciated! .

That Which is Sacred

Chapter Three: My Last Breath

"We've got a location." Chin stood as he saw it, rattling off the coordinates, his words barely finished when Danny grabbed his gear

"Thanks." He nodded, leaving.

"He's not going alone is he?" Kono looked between them.

"I think he is, let's go." Steve said as they hurried to stop their teammate from going Rambo in his haze of panic and protective fear, but it was too late, his car whipped out of the lot, speeding down the road towards the jungle.

"Hurry up!"

"It's getting dark!" There was a tremble to Grace's voice now as Stephanie pulled her up the hill.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark?" SHe sighed,

"no. not really." Grace said in a small voice, "I just don't want to get lost."

Stephanie scoffed, "Well getting lost is kind of the point kid." She stopped taking a breath, "There..that cave over there. Get." She said, her breath in gasps at the exertion, she'd intentionally crashed the car several feet down the mountain.

"You don't have a plan." Grace sighed.

"What?" Stephanie looked down at the incredulous gaze.

"You don't..first you're wanting Danno and the others to find us and stuff, then you want to leave me in a cave where no one will find me, and now you left the car where they'll find it.. You don't have a good plan." She shook her head, shivering a bit as the mist of evening began to rise.

Stephanie shook her head, scowling, "Shut up." She pulled her on ahead.

The realization that he had done something probably stupid didn't really register as he sped up the roads he'd only recently yelled at Steve at for speeding around them. The fact that he could most definately get very lost wasn't occuring to him. All he thought of was his little girl, knowing that she was somewhere in this vast jungle and there was a little house on the edge at this and that coordinate where some pyscho bitch held her. That's all he thought about. He saw it up in the distance, a shack, falling apart at the seams in the evening light. He threw the car into park and lept out. "Gracie!" He called, gun drawn. "Stephanie, let her out! Now!" He yelled at the shack running up, kicking the door in. "No." He said, tearing the empty room up, looking under everything. They weren't there. "Grace!" He called, pulling out his phone just as it rang, "They're not here." He said. "No one's here." He said in a defeated tone to his partner, looking around for any clue. Her bookbag was on the floor, it's contents on the bed, nothing else to even say they had been here. Fear took the stocky detective over and he crumpled to his knees, the sounds of his sobs something that none of his team would ever forget for as many years as they may be together.

Stephanie sighed as they reached the cave, "Get on in there." She waved at it, setting her things down and taking out a phone, she looked at it, not really sure what direction to take. Walk back to the car and give herself up without ever telling them where the kid was or call them and tell them exactly where and go out in a firefight. She weighed her options, weighed the fact that nothing was left to live for, nothing in Jersey to go back to, and the fact that she really didn't think she could hurt the brave little girl. She'd expected more tears and begging, but Grace was almost stoic as if she saw through her insanity. There was something that really ticked Stephanie off about that. She made her decision. She made the call.

Danny's phone rang as his moment of grief and despair ended and he wiped at his face, not even really caring his teammates had witnessed the moment.

"Put it on speaker." Steve said softly. He nodded, answering it.

"Williams." He said, his heart pounding wildly.

"So...where are you." Her voice sounded tired, but determined.

"I'm at the little shack you held my daughter at...and you're not here."
"Ah..so you could track me. Well shit." She sighed, "No we're not. You know I was trying to decide what to do really, I kind of thought of just turning myself in and letting you find your kid a week from now in one of the *millions* Of caves on this godforsaken island. But I don't want to."

"Let me talk to her." He said.."I just want to hear her, know she's alive."

Stephanie sighed, "She is. But if you insist." THere was a noise of walking.

"Danno?" The small voice said.
"Grace! We're coming monkey, we're coming."
"There you heard her." Stephanie was trying for the mean criminal bravado, "Give the kid false hope. Cause you won't."
"Wait. Wait Stephanie, we can resolve this...what do you want me to do? Make some calls? Reopen the case? Because I can...we could still find him."
"It's been five years Williams!" She yelled, "You're not gonna find my brother cause he's dead now...that's what you always say...kids missing this long aren't coming home! Well this time you know she won't be! You have until dark." She hung up.

"So she's at a cave." Steve nodded

"One of the millions." Danny sighed,

"She couldn't have taken her far." Chin said quietly, "She doesn't know the island, she'll go to the first cave she finds. Which isn't that far from here."

"She's not going with out a fight..and we only have an hour until dark..and who knows what she meant by you only have til dark."

"Why are we talking? Let's go!" Danny said.
"Because, we have to have a plan." Steve looked at him, "As much as I'd like to go in with guns blazing, we have a kid involved and her life to preserve. You put Stephanie in a position like that, she'll do anything."

"Let me talk to her." Kono offered, "Maybe I can...get her to let Grace go without any fight."

The men looked at her. "Okay. Make sure you have extra ammo."
"No." Kono shook her head, "No weapons. Just like you said, sending me in with guns will just freak her out, do any negotiators have guns on them?" Her eyebrows were quirked, "You're my back up, you're just out of sight with all the firepower we need, she'll trust me more if I don't have a gun on me."

Steve sighed, it wasn't the way he liked to go, it was dangerous, but she had been right so far. "Ok." He nodded, "let's go."

Grace watched Stephanie pace from the inside of the cave, shivering a bit, noticing that she had put a gun in her waistband and was brandishing a pistol, "What did you mean when you told Danno he only had til dark?" Her voice was small.

Stephanie looked towards her, "It depends." She glanced at her rope, "It all depends. Probably tying you up and throwing away the key." She shrugged.

Grace sighed, wrapping her arms around her knees. She just wanted this to be over, to be home. THe woman was crazy, had changed her mind so many times the only fear Grace had was that she didn't know what to believe from her. She didn't really feel like Stephanie *wanted* to hurt her, but would if she was pushed. SHe really hoped no one pushed her.

"There's the car!" Kono pointed to the small compact scrunched into a tree. The past five hours had seemed like a lifetime and finally..finally they were almost to finding Grace. They had called in HPD for backup if they needed it, especially with the erratic mind and behaviour of Stephanie, one really didn't know if four of them were enough to take her down. They had 45 minutes until dark. No more contact had been recieved. They disembarked from their vehicle, armed up, following the careless footprints up the mountainside. Kono turned her gun over to her cousin and took a deep breath.
"Be calm." Steve instructed, pausing, "And be careful." He squeezed her shoulder as she followed the trail up, seeing a clearing in the distance and a short, blonde woman pacing, two guns visible.

Stephanie heard the foliage break with footfalls and pulled Grace to her, an arm infront of her, holding her tightly, the girl gasped, fear taking her. Stephanie pointed the gun towards the sounds, "Stop or I'll shoot!" She said, her voice firm.
"Hey! I'm unarmed!" Kono held up her hands as she broke the clearing, she swallowed, seeing the crazy in the woman's eyes as she held Grace close, the little girls hands digging into her arm as she tried to make her let go. "See not a thing."

"Turn around." Stephanie waved her gun, "You cops hide everything."

Kono kept her hands up as she made a full circle, even bending to lift her pant legs to show there was no guns at all..."See. Nothing hidden."

Danny saw them, the three of them, Stephanie with her gun trained on Kono and her arm tight around his daughter, he fought the urge to rush her and grab that which was most precious to him, tried very hard to become cop and not father as he kept his gun trained. "If you get a chance." He whispered to his partner, "Take her out."

There was no answer. He didn't need to answer that suggestion. There was no question.

"So they sent you." Stephanie said, "I thought Williams would storm in here all rambo with guns blazing."

Kono smirked, lowering her hands a bit, "I'm sure he wants to. But we don't want anyone hurt." She said gently. There was no answer, Stephanie's nostrils were flared and she looked arond, "So what are you going to do when it gets dark, Stephanie?" She asked.

Stephanie whipped her head to her, "Something." She said, "Now that you're here, probably take you out then take the kid out, then myself."

Kono nodded, "I see. How will that reach your goal of revenge though? I mean don't you want to see Danny suffer...if your dead.." She shrugged.

"No sudden moves!" THe gun was back on her and the men resisted the urge to rush in to rescue their unarmed partner...the rookie was doing okay so far.

"Ok..sorry." Kono raised her hands again, "Just trying to talk to you."

"You're trying to talk me out of it...letting her go. I'm not stupid." A finger hovered over the trigger.

"Do you think Jeremy would have wanted you to do this though Stephanie?" Kono asked gently, her gaze cutting to Grace, the girl's eyes filling fear as she was held tightly.

Stephanie swallowed and the gun wavered, "Jeremy was too young..you know? Too young for anything. He was just eight. It was just us, ya know?" Her accent thick, "I was supposed to take care of him."

Kono nodded, "Yeah..I understand what you mean. You did a good job, Steph." She said, watching as the finger moved away from the trigger. "You really did. You were working two jobs...trying to give him a good childhood from what you could." She chose her words carefully, seeing the gun hand wavering, tears glistening in the woman's eyes.

"You know I still had hope...after a year..I did..really. THen it became two years. They sealed the case, lady. Sealed it...like they didn't care." Her voice broke, "Williams *promised* me!" She said, waving the gunhand dangerously, making all of their hearts stop, "That first day, he promised they'd do everything they could. Said he had a little girl and he'd do anything to find her if it was the case...WELL IT"S THE CASE NOW!" She yelled, waving her gun at the trees, "You don't think I don't know that they're back there?" She turned back to Kono, Grace whimpering now with being whipped around in all directions. "So what's he do..he's hiding up there in the bushes and makes the rookie kid come talk me down!" She laughes.

"No, I chose to." Kono said gently, shaking her head, "We don't want anyone to get hurt, Stephanie. Jeremy wouldn't have wanted that either." She said softly, "He loved you very much I know, wouldn't he want you to just...let her go? It's not Gracie's fault."

"I have no where to go but prison now." Stephanie said, the realization of what she had done finally starting to sink in. "Jeremy was all I had." She said. She was weakening, she lowered the gun, her arm loosening around Grace.

"At least your conscience will be clear from hurting an innocent kid?" Kono quirked a brow, lowering her arms.

Stephanie nodded, "If you say so." She watched Kono for a minute and looked down at Grace. "No one's really innocent though." She raised the gun again, her eyes looking down at Grace, "I will find him. I will." She nodded at the girl who watched her with terrified eyes.

"No..no don't!" Kono said seeing the movement, she rushed for them just as the gun fired.

"No!" Danny rushed from the trees, Chin and Steve following as the gun fired, Grace screamed and ran for Kono as her captor fell, the gun still clenched in her lifeless hand as her unseeing eyes stared up at the darkening sky. Steve knelt, feeling for a pulse, shaking his head. Kono wrapped her arms around Grace as the little girl cried, both of them shaking.

"Gracie." Danny said, kneeling,

"Danno." The little girl threw her arms around her father, "I knew..I knew it would be okay." She turned her head into his neck to not see the dead body of her captor. "I really was scared, I tried not to be Daddy, really." She cried hard as her father picked her up and held her close, his own tears mingling with her.

"It's okay Monkey, you had a right to be scared, you're okay now." He kissed her, "It's okay..Danno's got you."

The coronor took away the body while Danny left with Grace to take her to the hospital to get checked out. "You did good." Steve said, coming up behind Kono as she watched them zip the bodybag, "For a rookie, you did really good." He nodded, smiling at her as she turned, offering a small smile.
"Didn't expect her to kill herself." She said softly, rubbing her arms as night had fully taken them over.

"You never know what to expect in situations like that." He said softly, his arm behind her on the hood of the car, offering some strength and support without really touching her. It occured to him he never really had.

Kono snorted softly, "I don't think I'm cut out to be a hostage negotiator."
"Maybe not." He shurgged, "But it was someone you cared about. Come on, let's go see how they're doing." He patted her back, then settled his arm around her shoulders, giving her an encouraging squeeze before dropping it to let her in the car.

Rachel rushed into the ER holding bay, whipping the curtain back. "Grace!" She said, wrapping her arms around her daughter, "You're okay? Oh you're okay." She stated, inhaling the soft scent, she showered her daughter's face with kisses, clinging to her. She looked up at her ex-husband who just watched, waiting for her to say something snarky and venomous about how this wouldn't have happened if he'd never been a cop. She swallowed, those blue eyes tormented, tired, relieved, a million emotions she never wanted to see in him again. "Thank you."

Danny looked up, raising his eyebrows, "Thank you?"

Rachel nodded, "You got our baby back." She said softly as Grace cuddled against her, she stroked her daughter's dark hair, "Thank you." She looked down, kissing her hair, strong emotions coming to her she cared not to explore.

Danny just smiled softly, pausing a moment before stepping over and enveloping his family in his arms, just to feel them, to know...it was going to be okay.

In the weeks following Gracie met a child counselor to work through the trauma the kidnapping had induced, she was a strong child, the doctor concluded, and would come out of it okay. She had a sensitive heart and had felt bad for her captor, even though she was "very very crazy". She knew she may have nightmares for awhile, having witnessed the suicide, and she knew that she could talk to her family or the nice doctor anytime..and that made her feel safe. What made her feel safer, she said to the doctor, was that she had a whole team of "special cops" that would keep her safe and no bad person would ever get her again because Danno and Uncle Steve would shoot them dead. That was just the facts. And she had always wanted a big sister, and the fact that Kono had a gun to keep her safe with...well that was just an added bonus. ANd she could come down to the office anytime, Chin had said so...he would keep sweets in a drawer for her...just don't tell Uncle Steve. "You really told the doctor all that?" Danny looked down at Grace, quirking a brow.

The girl giggled, "It's true Danno!" She smiled, "They all said that, and yes I told her that. Mom is okay with it too..she feels good that they all had your back and found me" She smiles,

Her father chuckled then growled as he looked at the clock, "We're gonna be late to your little party thing." He said, pulling out of the drive.

Gracie giggled uncontrollably.

"What?"
She grinned pointing to the excellorator pedal, "Book it Danno."