Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize…

A/N: Thank you so much for all the amazing reviews and all the alerts and favs. You rock! Sorry for not updating too much lately but things got a little busy at work.

As always many thanks to quisinart4 for being my awesome beta!

Tell me what you think!

When Kono wakes up, slightly cold and without the additional weight of another body on her, she doesn't have to open her eyes she knows instantly that Steve isn't there next to her because no matter what position they fall asleep, her husband ends up lying halfway on top of her by the morning. It's one of the possessive traits of his personality that she doesn't mind actually.

Blinking her eyes open, she stares at the ceiling until her vision clears, trying to figure out where the hell Steve is but it's only when she checks her phone she realizes that it's Wednesday and everything starts to make sense. It's one of Steve's running days so he's most certainly in the kitchen by now.

She stumbles out of their bed, tugging at the hem of her sleep shirt and goes to find Steve. As expected, he is in the kitchen, making coffee.

"Morning," she greets him softly, hugging him from behind.

"Hey," he turns around, sneaking a hand into her hair and angling her face towards him for a kiss. "Morning."

"I thought you went running," she says after they break apart, nosing his cheek affectionately.

"I wanted to bring you coffee first," Steve lifts her mug from the counter and pushes it into her waiting hands.

"You are the best wife ever." Kono grins, kissing the corner of his mouth before taking a sip from her coffee, humming contently. One sugar and lots of cream, just the way she likes it.

"Funny." Steve huffs, kissing her once more before turning to leave. "I'll be back in an hour, you are on breakfast duty."

"Aye, aye Commander!" She salutes sloppily with her mug still in her hand and lets out a surprised squeak when he playfully smacks her ass on his way out before shouting after him. "I'm so gonna burn your eggs for that, sailor!"

She watches Steve through the kitchen's window as he starts to jog towards the beach with Koa and Kiko trailing faithfully behind him and she can't help smiling at the sheer domesticity of the picture they make.

After they are disappear from sight, Kono walks out to the lanai, sitting down on one of the rattan loveseats to consume the rest of her perfect coffee while she enjoys the quiet morning.

She barely closes her eyes against the warm rays of the sun when someone arrives rather loudly through the backdoor.

"There you are," Danny scowls, plopping down heavily beside her, almost knocking the mug out of her hand in the process. "There was so quiet in there that for a moment I thought you were all murdered."

"Good morning to you, too, Danny." Kono grumbles, her head falling backwards with a resigned sigh. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Wednesday." Danny throws her a glare like whatever problem he has is totally her fault.

"Yes?" she blinks at him.

"I want my waffles," he whines, highlighting his need with a sharp hand gesture. "And since you showed no intention of inviting us for a team breakfast, I had no other choice but come and force you to do it."

"Where's Chin then?" Kono asks, tilting her head to the side, narrowing her eyes at Danny. "And please tell me that you didn't invite Lori."

"No," he shakes his head vehemently. "I thought you'd be uncomfortable with that and I'm not a total animal like your worse half. And Chin said that he had other plans."

"So it's just you."

"Yep."

"You are a total food fetishist, Danny." Kono laughs, shaking her head.

"No, I'm not," Danny denies with wide eyes. "Where's the rest of this asylum anyway?"

"Running," she leans back against the soft cushion, getting comfortable again and propping her feet on the small table before the loveseat. "Let me drink my coffee in peace and then maybe I'll be nice to you."

"Yeah, okay," Danny nods seriously. "I can do tha-…oh, my God, is that a hickey on your inner thigh? You realize that you aren't sixteen anymore, right? Unbelievable…"

"Danny," Kono snaps with her eyes still closed. "Me. Coffee. Silence."

"Okay, okay," he huffs, holding up his hands in surrender.

Of course Danny only manages to sit still and keep quiet for exactly five and a half minutes.

"Everything's fine by the way?" He asks, turning a little so he can observe her reaction better. "Steve told me that you struggled with nightmares after North Korea."

"I'm fine." Kono opens her eyes, looking at Danny's sincerely concerned face. "It always goes away eventually."

"Always?" Danny arches a questioning brow. "How many times has Commander Rambo gotten kidnapped actually?"

Kono doesn't answer immediately, just straightens in her seat, pulling her legs under her, visibly distancing herself from Danny.

"It happened in the first year," she starts to speak quietly, staring towards the ocean. "Steve went on a mission to God knows where and after three weeks of no word from him, a Navy guy showed up at my door and told me that his team went missing nine days ago and there's a high possibility that they died."

"Fuck." Danny mutters with feeling, reaching out tentatively and when she doesn't flinch away, he wraps an arm around her shoulders. "What happened?"

"I called Catherine, I flew to Coronado, I made a few embarrassing scenes, threatening some heavily decorated sailor." Kono lets out a humorless laugh at the memory. "For twelve days, all I heard from everyone that I should accept that my husband was dead but I couldn't because I knew that he was alive, I could still breathe so he just fucking had to be alive. Then on the thirteenth day's morning, my phone rang. It was Steve, telling me that he'll be home in a few hours and try not to break any more noses because he has a wife to support and he doesn't want to get kicked out of the Navy."

"Such a romantic." Danny drawls wryly before his expression softens. "I'm sorry you went through all of that."

"It's okay." Kono smiles, patting Danny's arm. "And I have a great support system now."

"Me?" Danny looks at her in honest surprise.

"You," she grins, resting her head on his shoulder with a sigh. "I don't know what I'd have done without you in South Korea."

"Anytime, babe." Danny murmurs, kissing the crown of her head.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Steve drawls, looking down at the pair with a scowl.

"Nah," Kono lifts her head up from Danny's shoulder, stretching leisurely with a grin. "Danny just paid me a conjugal visit."

"A what?" Danny squeaks, furrowing his brows. "Please don't say things like that, you know that when it comes to you, Thomas Magnum over there, loses all his remaining sense of humor which isn't very much to start with, so, well, uh, just don't, okay?"

"Actually those Dobermans weren't Magnum's." Kono corrects Danny then she turns to Steve. "You are home early."

"I, uh, took the shorter route because I thought we could…um, never mind." Steve shifts awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

"You can say morning sex before me," Danny mutters with disdain. "I'm old enough to hear it."

"I wasn't…" Steve retorts but Danny cuts him off with a dismissive hand motion.

"Oh please, you've been undressing Kono with your eyes ever since you arrived." Danny lets out an annoyed huff. "Not that she wears too much to take off."

"Guys," Kono snaps, rolling her eyes at the two bickering men. "Stop or you're making your own breakfast."

"Okay, Higgins." Danny drawls, widening his eyes innocently when Kono glares at him. "What? You are no fun, you own two Dobermans, you live with Magnum, that makes you Higgins, right?"

"Don't push it." Kono growls, swatting at his arm. "If you don't want me to accidentally put salt in your waffles."

"Shutting up now," Danny stands, pushing Steve towards the door. "Come on, let's see if we can find an ugly aloha shirt for you or we can always call Chin for a spare. You can work on the mustache later."

Kono can't hear her husband's response but from the tone alone she can tell that he is not amused and she giggles, shaking her head while she gets up to make her way into the kitchen and she hopes that Danny won't find the shirt her aunt gave Steve for Christmas.

.

.

"Hey, tell me something," Steve glances at Kono while they drive towards the Preston Residence to talk to the victim's boyfriend. "Did your dad like any of your high school boyfriends?"

"No, I don't think so." Kono looks at him confused. "Why? Did Dad call you or something? I know he doesn't like you much but it would be way over the line."

"What are you talking about?" He furrows his brows. "Your dad loves me. It's your mother who hates me."

"Sorry to shatter your illusion, baby, but you got it all wrong." Kono pats his hand on the gear stick sympathetically. "Mom is so in love with you, it's kinda embarrassing. On the other hand, Daddy's gonna hold a lifelong grudge for defiling his little girl."

"Come on," Steve whines, taking the next turn a little too sharply. "It's not fair, how could I defile you anyway, we are married for fuck's sake."

"Let's try something." Kono turns towards him in her seat. "Imagine that we have a daughter, who comes home one day, saying that she'd gotten married to some military guy."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Steve clenches his jaw in irritation, the mere possibility of something like this happening makes him tightening his grip on the wheel. "Let's hope we'll only have boys for the island male population's sake."

"See?" Kono laughs. "No one likes his daughter's boyfriend. No one."

"Now I'm certain that Lori's high school boyfriend was gay." Steve mutters.

"What does Lori's high school boyfriend has to do with this?" Kono arches a questioning brow.

"Never mind." Steve makes a dismissive hand motion and parks the car before the Preston Residence.

.

.

"Well, you can't blame Emily's dad for not liking this kid." Steve grouses as they walk out of the hospital.

"Really?" Kono grins. "I kind of liked him."

"What, are you kidding me?" He looks at her disbelievingly. "He's cocky, arrogant and fucking disrespectful."

"He kinda reminded me of someone." Kono's grin widens. "And he really seemed to care about Emily."

"I assure you, I wasn't anything like that." Steve glares, offended.

"Yeah, sure," she drawls, rolling her eyes. "And what was that with the whole, 'you call me sir' bullshit? You were a total asshole to him."

"It's all your fault," he retorts gruffly, opening the door for her. "All I could think about is that one day a nasty little fucker like that kid gonna put his hands all over my little girl."

"Now, you're just being all unreasonable." Kono tries to hide her amusement at his odd behavior.

"You don't understand, do you?" Steve stops beside their car and turns her towards him, looking frantic and rather miserable. "We can't have a daughter, alright? This island is too small and there's a fair amount of bodies I can hide in the jungle before they start to notice."

"Oh my, God." Kono bursts out laughing and his eyes flash dangerously. "You are insane, baby, you are aware of that, right?"

"Kono…" Steve is sure that he's whining and he's a heartbeat away from stomping his foot in sheer frustration.

"What? Oh, okay," she huffs, cradling his face in her hands, rising to her tiptoes to give him a reassuring kiss. "I promise we'll only have boys. Happy now?"

"Ecstatic." Steve mutters dryly not looking convinced at all. "Could you not…"

"I'm not gonna tell Danny," Kono interrupts, like she's reading his mind. "Come on, we have a killer to catch. You can freak out in the solace of your bloody chamber at home after we solved this case."

"I hope you're enjoying this," he narrows his eyes at her.

"You have no idea," she laughs, kissing him once more before getting into the car.

.

.

"He saved my life, Chin." Steve argues. "More than once."

"I get that. I do. But I'm telling you he's hiding something." Chin sighs, shaking his head. "And you have to finally realize that you aren't on your own anymore. You can't rush into things like you used to. You have a family now, people who care about you and they could get hurt too."

"Hey, guys," Kono bursts into Steve's office. "You need to see this. I got something off Emily's computer."

Steve straightens the moment she walks in, his expression going blank with no trace of the previous tension.

"Whoa," Kono halts in the doorway, eyeing them suspiciously. "What happened? I swear I could drown in testosterone. Okay, what aren't you telling me?"

"It's…" Chin starts to explain but Steve cuts him off sharply.

"Nothing. You wanted to show something, right?" He's next to her in two long steps, placing a hand on the small of her back and pushing her gently towards the briefing room, throwing a warning glare at Chin on their way out.

Chin let's out an exaggerated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers, fighting down the rapidly approaching headache before he follows them.

.

.

"And neither of them knew they were being watched or recorded." Kono frowns. "That's really creepy."

"Moral of the story:" Charlie grins. "Resist the urge to have sex in front of an open laptop."

"Sometimes you scare me," she looks at him disbelievingly. "But I'll try not to forget to share your little advice with Steve."

"Um," Charlie's grin disappears on instant and he visibly pales at the thought. "Uh, could you not tell this to Commander McGarrett? I like my limbs intact if you don't mind."

"I was joking," Kono laughs at his terrified expression. "It's funny how scared of him you are."

"No offense, Kono but your husband is intimidating." Charlie says, tugging at the collar of his shirt. "So, the other thing is that I got an IP address for the blackmail e-mails."

.

.

"Oh, did you have fun with Lori?" Danny greets Kono as she steps into the briefing room. "How was the car ride? Did you swap beauty tips, like 5 ways to curl your hair or 26 more ways to drive your significant other batshit insane?"

"Funny." Kono deadpans, walking past him to get some coffee. "It was a car ride, not the writing room of Cosmo. How do you exactly know about the content of a women's magazine by the way?"

"I was married you know," Danny makes a face, motioning with his hand for emphasis. "And my sisters practically live by those magazines."

"So, what did you two find out at the school?" Chin changes the subject because he has no intention to witness another full-blown argument between Kono and Danny. It's not a pretty sight.

"Oh, I heard you cuffed that kid," Danny grins, rubbing his hands together gleefully. "Man, I bet being handcuffed by two gorgeous women is every teenage boys' dream."

"You really wanna talk about Lori and handcuffs?" Kono arches a brow at him with a wicked smile.

Danny makes a big show of zipping his mouth shut and Chin snorts quietly in the background.

No one can win with Kono, it's time for them to finally learn that.

.

.

After Steve and Danny leave, Kono corners Joe with a determined expression.

"I don't know what this is all about with you, Steve and Chin," she starts and shakes her head curtly when Joe opens his mouth to explain. "No, I don't want to hear it from you."

"What do you want then?" Joe looks at her curiously with a tense half-smile.

"I don't want you to think that I'm ungrateful," Kono folds her arms across her chest, her expression darkening. "But if Steve gets hurt because you didn't tell him something important about Wo Fat or Shelburne you'd better start looking over your shoulder because I'm gonna come after you."

"I admire your strength and loyalty, Kono." Joe's voice is gentle and fatherly and Kono pretty much wants to punch him in the face. "You have to believe me that I'm just trying to protect him."

"Yeah, sure." Kono barely holds herself back from rolling her eyes at the man. "I mean it, Joe. Don't underestimate me."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Joe turns serious. "I know everything about the scorn of a woman, I was married a few times."

"Good." Kono nods, turning on her heels and walking into her office without a backward glance.

.

.

"I can't believe you actually pushed him off that cliff." Danny yells, his arms flailing around wildly as they enter the HQ.

"Oh, come on," Steve grins smugly. "It was barely ten feet."

"It doesn't matter!" Danny's voice raises even higher. "We are the good guys, you know that, right? We don't push people off anywhere."

"What happened?" Kono sticks her head out of her office, eyeing them warily.

"What happened?" Danny's face turns red with outrage. "I tell you what happened. Your total animal of a husband thought it'd be fun to kidnap Ray Donovan, force him to confess by threatening to push him off an eighty-foot drop and after he told us everything, Steve pushed him off just for kicks."

"Seriously?" Kono steps out of her office and walks up to Steve, halting before him with her hands on her hips, glaring at him menacingly. "You promised that I could be there. It's not fair, you always bring Danny even though all he does is bitch and moan about it."

"What?" Danny widens his eyes at her in shock. "Is that all you can say?"

"Sorry," Steve mumbles, hanging his head sheepishly but Danny can see the hint of a satisfied smirk tugging at the corner of his friend's mouth.

"That's it," Danny snaps irritably, motioning towards the exit. "Get out of my sight you lunatics. Go home or go push each other off cliffs, see if I care."

Steve laughs, grabbing Kono's hand and starts to pull her out of the HQ but with the way his eyes darken Kono thinks he has some other ideas.

She can't wait to find them out.

.

.

"Hey, where are you?" Kono asks when Steve picks up the phone. "I thought we are going out with the guys?"

"Hiro Noshimuri's son kidnapped Joe." Steve rushes out the words. "I'm heading towards his place to get Joe back."

"I'll be there in twenty." Kono says, picking up her keys and runs towards her car.

"No," he grunts, annoyed. "You are going to meet with Chin and Danny, you'll be safe with them."

"It wasn't a request, Steve." Kono retorts sternly. "You are not going in there without back-up."

"Don't you dare coming here." Steve's voice gets low and harsh.

"Look, you have two options," Kono steers the wheel with one hand while searching for the last threads of her patience. God, she married a mule. "One, we meet in ten minutes, I'll back you up and we get Joe out. Two, I call Chin and Danny, maybe Duke just for fun and while you wait for them you can wonder if you're still going to have a wife in the morning."

"Fine." Steve mutters, clenching his jaw in sheer frustration. He can't blame anyone but himself, he was the one who married the most stubborn woman after all. "See you in ten."

"Excellent choice, Commander." Kono drawls wryly and ends the call.

.

.

They arrive stealthily from the opposite sides of the garden, taking out the guards without any noise, approaching the front door with their guns drawn.

"Stay here," Steve orders, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Five minutes and I'm coming in." Kono looks at him seriously.

Steve just nods and heads into the house.

A few moments later she can hear a single gunshot and she flinches, trying not to imagine the worst but as the seconds go by she gets more and more restless, itching to just rush into the house, consequences will be damned.

She's already in motion when Steve appears with a thoroughly beaten Joe at his side and she lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"Let's get the hell out of here." Steve commands gruffly with a tight expression.

They part ways at their cars with Steve telling her to go home and he'll be there too soon but he has to take Joe home first.

Of course she doesn't obey, tailing them instead from a safe distance because there's a knot in the pit of her stomach that doesn't wanna loosen and she knows that whatever going on between Steve and Joe, it's not gonna end well.

Her heart jumps into her throat when the Silverado comes to a screeching halt and she's out of her car before she could think it through.

"I was tortured over Shelburne!" She can hear Steve's raised voice. "I was tortured! Joe, Jenna Kaye paid with her life! Wo Fat threatened to kill Kono! I can't let that happen, okay? I deserve answers. I want answers. I want them right now."

She can't hear Joe's answer but a moment later the passenger side door opens and the man gets out, finding himself face to face with Kono.

"Why am I not surprised." Joe says with a rueful smile as he walks past her, and Kono has to hold herself back not to shoot him.

She gets into the truck instead, reaching out for her husband tentatively. He doesn't respond at first, just keeps staring out of the windshield with red-rimmed eyes, looking defeated and broken.

"Mano," Kono whispers softly, touching his cheek with gentle fingers and he finally acknowledges her presence, turning his face into her palm, letting out a shuddering breath.

"I'm getting so fucking tired of this shit," he mumbles, his voice tight and rough with emotion, his lips brushing against the delicate skin of her wrist with every other word.

"I know." She caresses the side of his face.

Suddenly he reaches out and pulls her into his lap, burying his face in her neck while he clings to her almost desperately.

She doesn't know what to say, she doesn't know if there was anything that would make the situation remotely easier for him, so she stays quiet instead, cradling him closer, offering as much comfort as she can.

She really should have shot Joe. Repeatedly.