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Juliet turned this way and that in front of the mirror. It was stupid, but maybe he’d recognise it and maybe that would make him smile. She liked making him smile. She liked making him do a lot of things.

“Well now, don’t you look the perfect princess,” commented Kumu from the doorway.

Juliet surveyed herself with not one but both eyebrows raised. The soft grey netting of the wimple and shimmering silver surcoat did nothing for her Saxon complexion. If anything, it just made her incongruously dark eyes stand out more. Olivia de Havilland may have had dark eyes too, but at least she had the brunette’s English Rose skin, perfectly arched eyebrows, and ruby lips to go with them. The best she could do was a bit of powder and lipstick. “I’m not a princess, I’m a maid,” she retorted.

“I thought covering the hair was a married women thing?” Kumu wondered aloud. Her expression in the mirror conveyed an entirely different reply.

“I wouldn’t know about that: I just googled the character,” groaned Juliet, frowning at the jarring contrast of yellow and black stripes down her sleeves. Ugh! She hated it! She looked like a bloody wasp in armour!

“Uh-huh,” smirked Kumu. She had spotted the DVD in the cinema room a few weeks ago. “So, should I expect to see you tomorrow or…”

“I’m sure I’ll be around at some point,” shrugged Juliet. “Unless another client pops up, I have nothing to do but estate work tomorrow.”

“Oh really. Nothing?” Kumu queried, innocently.

“He has a bar to run; I have an estate to run,” she replied, glaring at her friend through narrowed eyes. “We’re busy adult people. We can’t spend all day in bed like teenagers!”

“Just all night,” added Kumu, with a laugh.

“Kumu!”  Juliet gasped, trying to sound as scandalised as she felt she ought to feel.

“It’s been two months,” Kumu reminded her. “How many of those nights have you spent alone?”

“Some,” Juliet shrugged. “I don’t know how many exactly. Sometimes I have work. Sometimes he does. We don’t exactly have ordinary nine to five jobs, either of us!”

“And when work has not gotten in the way?”

“I sleep better when he’s next to me,” Juliet shrugged again. “We both do.”

“Well, you know…”

“It’s not about that,” Juliet scolded, though she smiled as she spoke. “Not just about that, at least. I just… I feel like we’ve wasted so much time. Me because I refused to let myself be happy again, and him because he was worried how Magnum would react!”

“Was it wasted, though?” Kumu asked her. “You two didn’t start off like most other couples, taking time to figure out who the other person is and whether or not you can trust them. You’d already done that. So, in a way, that time wasn’t wasted.”

“Okay, but still: our lives might both have been so different if we’d got together back then.”

Kumu sighed and leant back against the doorframe with folded arms. “That’s true, no doubt,” she agreed, “but does that necessarily mean you would be the better for it?”

Juliet glanced her way in the mirror again. “What do you mean?”

“Let’s say you and Rick became an item back then: do you think you would have lasted? Would you still be together now?”

Juliet opened her mouth to reply, then remembered the point in time she was talking about, and the way she had felt about him. Then she remembered to stop getting distracted and answer the question. “You may have a point…”

“Then again, assuming you did make it that far,” added Kumu, “what would you have done when your visa ran out?”

Juliet tipped her head to one side and pursed her lips in thought. If they had made it that far, marrying TC or Magnum would have been just utterly out of the question. Maybe she would have married him instead, but then they would always be wondering if what they had was real, or just a product of desperation and misplaced chivalry. And Robin wouldn’t have given her Robin’s Nest. And if she hadn’t married him? Would Magnum still have made the same plea to Robin? Would refusing to marry Rick have broken them?

“You walked the path destiny laid out for you,” smiled Kumu. “It had its trials and challenges, but what life doesn’t? You’re stronger for having faced them. There will be more to come too. Hopefully, lots more. Hopefully, you’ll face them together.”

“I can think of one or two challenges I’d be happy to face with him, Kumu, but lots…”

“Will take a long time,” finished Kumu. “A lifetime, if you’re lucky.”

****

The bar buzzed with the sound of live music, laughter, and the sheer exuberance of having survived the past two years almost. An array of witches and wizards, ghosts and skeletons, werewolves and vampires, and monsters of all manner of myth, filled the dancefloor. They were currently doing the Timewarp. From his spot behind the bar, Rick chuckled at a skinny, berobed youth with “WIZZARD” on his hat trying to follow the rest and failing miserably.

“Orville, why is there a dog dressed up as a pirate’s chest with too many legs in our bar?”

Rick looked round to see TC, eyeing said dog suspiciously.

“See the badge on the lid of the chest,” Rick replied, nodding in the direction of the dog, who sat watching the skinny wizard with his tongue hanging out. “He’s a service dog. And he’s not a pirate’s chest, he’s The Luggage. See the kid at the end of the row there? This is his first proper Halloween party, and he would not be here without that dog. Look at him, enjoying himself! He’s never danced that dance before, and he’s still having trouble keeping up, but he hasn’t let it stop him! He’s having fun!”

TC nodded and smiled. “Good for him. Anything we should be keeping an eye out for?”

“Well, the dog does most of the work,” shrugged Rick. “Just keep an eye out if the crowd gets a bit too much and they get separated. If the dog comes up to you – he’s called Buster, by the way – he wants you to follow him, not pet him. It means he needs help.”

TC gave a single, decisive nod. “Duly noted. The others here yet?”

Rick shook his head. “Shammy’s not due for another hour or so. Thomas says he has a case. If he does, it’s one Higgy knows nothing about. She’s said she’d be here around now, and Kumu is coming with her.”

TC tutted and sighed. This thing between his brothers was going to take more than a little time to fix. The closer Rick and Higgy got, the further away Thomas drifted. He knew why. He’d just hoped Tommy would have found a way to be around them both by now. Higgins alone he seemed to have no problem with. It was Rick he was avoiding.

“Dude, I know. I’m sorry, but what can I do?” Rick shrugged. “I can’t switch off my feelings and magic things back the way they used to be!”

“I know, brother, I know,” sighed TC, patting him on the shoulder. “It ain’t your fault. We don’t choose who we fall in love with. Problem is, just like you can’t switch off your feelings, he can’t switch off his. Give him time. He’ll come around.”

“Yeah, with a baseball bat!” Rick scoffed. He leant down on the bar. “I can’t give her up, TC. I won’t. Not even for Thomas.”

“He knows that. He wouldn’t ask you to,” shrugged TC, frowning, hoping he was right. “And Tommy ain’t gonna come at you with a baseball bat or anything else: he loves you. Might not show right now, but he does. You’re still his brother.”

“Brothers fight,” sighed Rick, looking down at the bar with a frown. “They fall out.”

“They forgive each other too,” TC reminded him.

“Not always,” he replied, staring at the smooth surface like it could open up and swallow him if he just blinked. This was what he had been afraid of. This was why he had done everything he could to hide his feelings, once he realised what they might mean. Back before Juliet had been a regular part of their little group, trying to impress her or charm her had been as easy as breathing. Trying had. Succeeding had obviously not. That had been then. By the time he realised that little crush was quite a lot more serious, things had already become, well, complicated. They only got more complicated as time went on. If only he’d had something more sensible to suggest than bearer bonds and hidden spy gadgets. He huffed out a wry laugh, shaking his head.

“What?” TC frowned, watching his brother through narrowed eyes.

“Bearer bonds,” he shrugged, looking up to see TC’s face turn into a mess of utter confusion. “Why’d I have to pick something stupid, like bearer bonds, or her necklace, which even I could see was important to her.”

TC threw his hands up in surrender. “Orville, what the heck are we talkin’ about here?”

“Do you remember when we first really started getting to know Higgy?” Rick asked, watching TC. “Not when we first met her, but when we first kinda started to see below the surface, after she helped us with Nuzo’s murder.”

TC considered this. A memory surfaced. “Wait, are you talking about the tuna thing?”

“Yeah, the tuna thing,” nodded Rick. “If I hadn’t been such an idiot then…”

“Dude, don’t do that! Come on!” TC groaned. If Rick was going to rehash every mistake he had ever made, and every opportunity he had ever missed, this was going to be a long night. “Past is past. Let it lie.”

“Yeah, but…”

“No! No buts, Orville!” TC held up a warning finger. “Let’s say you had hit it off with Higgy back then. What exactly do you think would have happened?”

“Well, I…”

“Bearing in mind who you both were back then,” TC added, folding his arms.

Rick’s eyes slid to the side, then dropped.

“Exactly,” scoffed TC. “You’re together now, and you’re both on the same page. That’s what matters.”

“Yeah, but us getting together now has hurt someone I care about,” he pointed out. “Back then, maybe it wouldn’t have.”

TC sighed. He didn’t want to have to say this. “Either way, one of you was gonna get hurt. Then, who knows? Maybe things would have gotten awkward between you and Higgy, and she never would have helped Thomas so much, or gone into business with him. Maybe she might not even have stayed. You think of that?”

“Maybe she would, though,” shrugged Rick, turning his attention back to the various little chores that needed doing behind the bar. “Maybe she’d have stuck around. Maybe things would have been a little awkward for a while, but we’d have gotten over it and things would have ended up right back here, only without Tommy falling for her too.”

“Or maybe all that happens except you both still fall in love with her, only now she ends up with Thomas instead,” shrugged TC. “Orville, you gotta let that go! We could go over maybes until the next time it snows here and we still wouldn’t know the truth! You can’t change the past! Stop wishing you could!”

TC stopped, aware that his friend was no longer listening. Instead, Rick’s attention was fixed on something, or someone, behind TC. From the look on his brother’s face, TC was in no doubt who that person was.

“There’s one other thing I really wish I could go back in time and change right now,” he said, without shifting his fixed gaze. “I really wish I’d worn that stupid costume!”

TC raised an eyebrow and sighed. He turned and leant back against the bar. There was Higgy, shining like a star in a night sky of vampire cloaks and skeleton costumes, smiling back at Rick like he was the only other person in the world. Beside her, Kumu rolled her eyes at TC.

TC turned back to his brother. “Orville, if you don’t stop grinning like an idiot and get your ass over there, I’m gonna go ask the band to play that Bruno Mars track from your playlist.”

Rick didn’t blink, but he did swipe at TC’s shoulder with a free hand. “Don’t you dare. I got plans for that!”

Nevertheless, he ducked out from behind the bar and hurried over, dodging tipsy partygoers. A tall vampire was asking Jules if she wanted to dance when he reached her.

“That’s very kind, but I’m very much spoken for,” she was saying, without looking at the vampire once. “Sorry. Better luck next time.”

The vampire spotted whom she was watching, recognised his host for the evening, and slumped a little, trudging back into the melee in search of someone more available.

“My Lady Marion, what a surprise,” grinned Rick, bowing and lifting her hand to his lips. “I kinda wish you’d warned me.”

Juliet chuckled. “But then that would deprive me of the look on your face when you spotted me, my love. I don’t think I’m going to forget that for a while.”

“I don’t think I’m going to forget you ever,” replied Rick, tracing the edge of the wimple with one hand. “Especially not in that outfit!”

“Good,” smiled Juliet, running her hands up and down the open edges of his shirt. A hand slipped around her waist. “It’s not the easiest get-up to get into!”

“Want some help getting out of it later?” Rick asked, drawing her closer as her hands slid up around his shoulders.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she grinned, kissing him.

“I love you, Jules” he murmured against her lips. “I love you so much.”

“I know. I love you too. Don’t ever doubt that, Rick.”

Kumu nudged TC. “I think they’ll be a while. What does a girl have to do to get a drink round here?”

TC laughed. “Yeah, I hear ya.” He stepped round to the other side of the bar and got Kumu her usual tipple. “Here. On the house, sister. How long did it take to get her into that thing?”

“Not half as long as it took to persuade her to go out in it!” Kumu chuckled.

“Seriously?” TC gawped. He looked from the two lovebirds to Kumu and back. “Higgy could wear an old sack and he’d still think she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Universe!”

Kumu laughed at that. “Ain’t love grand!”

“Ain’t it just!” TC agreed. His face dropped as he recalled another person for whom love was decidedly not grand. Love was something else entirely. Something that rhymed with one of the more popular Halloween costumes. “You see Tommy?”

Kumu shook her head. “Not since this afternoon. Said he was gonna go over some old case files.”

TC tutted and shook his head.

“He’ll come around,” sighed Kumu. She tipped her head at the two still wrapped in each other’s arms and now gently swaying to the music. “I can see why he doesn’t want to be around them when they’re together, though. Once they’re past the honeymoon phase, it’ll get easier.”

“Yeah, but how long will that take?” TC shrugged. “It’s called a honeymoon because it’s supposed to last one moon cycle: that’s one month!”

“It’ll take as long as it takes,” shrugged Kumu, sipping her drink. She had long ago learnt to accept the vagaries of the human heart. “You can’t put a time limit on these things.”

The song ended and, apparently, set a time limit on the little bubble the pair had been inhabiting. Hand in hand, they meandered over to the bar and rejoined the group.

“Aloha, Kumu,” said Rick, wrapping one arm around Kumu’s shoulders.

“Oh, now he notices me!” Kumu chided. She looked around him to Juliet, whose fingers still intertwined with his. “He liked the dress then!”

“Oh, he definitely liked the dress!” TC cut in, eyebrows raised.

“Shut up,” Rick scoffed. The fact TC had managed to pick out the exact song playing in his head when he caught sight of Jules had reminded him his brother knew every track on that playlist. He wasn’t happy about that, but there was nothing that could be done about it now. Still: the memory of TC’s face when he remembered some of the songs on there, knowing who they were about, was almost worth it.

TC opened his mouth to reply, then stopped and frowned over Rick’s shoulder. The others turned to look, and saw a man and woman pushing through the dancers, searching all the vampires and ghosts they could find. Juliet cast a glance at Rick. He nodded, releasing her hand. They each homed in on one of the searchers, listening and leading them back to the bar.

“This is June, she’s looking for her son Anthony,” Higgins reported, introducing the woman to the others at the bar.

“And this is Kyle,” added Rick, introducing the man. “He’s looking for his daughter, Maria.”

“They should have been home two hours ago,” June explained. “Anthony’s seventeen, Maria’s sixteen. They have a curfew and they’ve never missed it before.”

“They’re not answering their phones either,” added Kyle. “Either of them. Any app we could use to locate their phones has been turned off. That’ll be Maria: she’s a computer genius. She gets it from her mom. She was a cyber ops specialist.”

“I’m pretty sure they could just switch the phones off for that, dear,” smiled June, patting Kyle on the shoulder.

“Was?” Kumu frowned, glancing from one parent to the other. “You’re not together?”

“Oh no: we are,” June assured her. “Kyle and I met at grief counselling. Anthony’s father died in a bank robbery. He was a security guard.”

“Then your children are step-siblings, not actual siblings,” Higgins confirmed.

Kyle nodded. “They were so young when we met, they’ve practically grown up as siblings though. If they’re together, they’ll look after each other at least.”

“Why did you come here, looking for them?” Rick asked, the weight of the situation drawing his brows down from their usual, jovial, posts.

“They’d heard about the party here,” Kyle shrugged. “Anthony wanted an extension on his curfew for Halloween and Maria, of course, wanted one too. They’ve been inseparable for years.”

“Yes, we just never thought they’d do something like this when we said no,” added June. “I mean, surely they’d know we’d notice if they were out this long!”

“Besides their phones being off and their not being here,” began Higgins, “have you any other reason to suspect something bad has happened to them?”

June shrugged. “I don’t know. Not that I can think of. But why would they be gone so long without letting us know they were alright?”

“Maybe they’re back home already,” soothed Rick. “They could have been headed back there as you headed down here.”

“We have a one-year-old daughter,” replied Kyle, shaking his head. “We asked our neighbour to look after her while we came down here. She would have called if the kids came home.”

“What about you, Kyle: can you think of any reason something may have happened to them?” Higgins asked, turning to the father. “Anything at all?”

A thoughtful look passed over Kyle’s face, then he shook his head. “I’m a pharmacist. I have access to thousands of dollars of medical supplies. Probably way more on the black market! But there are easier ways to force me to hand those over.”

“A kidnapper might not think so,” frowned Higgins. “Is that the only thing?”

“That I can think of, yes,” nodded Kyle.

“You got any photos?” TC enquired.

Kyle tapped at his phone a few times and brought up a family group photo. He passed it to TC, who showed it to the others.

“Send me that, please, TC,” requested Higgins, pulling out her own phone. “Listen, June, Kyle: my professional partner and I are private investigators. Let us do the legwork for you. You go home and look after your little girl. I’ll need your details and your children’s phone numbers for now, and as much as you can tell us of their movements over the last few days, especially today.”

June and Kyle looked to each other, sharing the kind of semi-telepathic conversation some couples seem able to have, and nodded. Higgins tapped a text to Magnum into her phone. “La Mariana ASAP. Bring my laptop. New case. Missing teens.”

“Come on,” said Rick, patting Kyle on the shoulder and indicating the door behind the bar. “I got an office through there for doing paperwork in. It’s quieter. You can talk it over in there.”

****

I know what you’re thinking. That I’m being selfish. I don’t know: maybe I am. I just think I’m better out of their way, just now. I love them both: I really do. Higgy in a different way, apparently, and that kinda came as a shock the first time I worked it out. I knew I didn’t feel great about her dating Ethan, but I put it down to just wanting to look out for a friend. I didn’t trust the guy: he was her doctor! Then she got kidnapped and, well, everything that happened with that was a bit intense, but when she threw her arms around me after Hamler and his son were dead… Well, then I realised I didn’t want to let go, and not just because she was a friend and colleague.

I should have spotted it sooner though. I’m a private investigator and they’re two of my best friends. Ever since I found out about them, I’ve been going over it in my head. Not just the three days they were back on the island, but everything, all the way back to that time she pointed out how much the dogs got on with him, and not me. Things like the way he calls her Jules, but nobody else here does. Things like that clumsy pass he made at her with a dead tuna behind him stinking out the guest house. Things like the way she put her arms round him when Ice Pick got arrested again.

Way too many things. And I don’t need to add more to the pile right now. I’ll get past it, I hope. I can take being around Higgy okay, but this’ll be the first time I’ve been around Rick in weeks. I shouldn’t be this angry with him. I know. I know, but I can’t stop it. I’m trying: honest! And if I’m around him, he knows me well enough to know when I’m angry, and that’s just gonna make him feel worse. I know he feels guilty about this whole mess, as if anything he could have said or done would have made things turn out differently. I know that: I don’t need TC to tell me. But what TC doesn’t get is that me being there will only make things worse for everyone. I’ll feel worse because the two of them together is a constant reminder. Rick’ll feel worse because he’ll see that it still affects me. And Higgy? Well, she’ll probably just want to smack our heads together, and I don’t blame her! To be honest, I’m kinda surprised she hasn’t already, though I get the feeling she might be under orders.

Still, what’s a little discomfort when a couple of kids are missing? Higgy never mentioned anything about police, but either there’s some reason the parents haven’t got them involved yet, or there’s some reason they think they need our help. I’ll find out which when I get there. Ten to one, they’ve just snuck out to some party or other they don’t want their parents knowing about. I mean: who hasn’t done that, right?

****

There was barely room for the four of them in the tiny office when Magnum arrived, and Rick immediately rose to leave. “I oughta go help TC at the bar. It’s a little busier out there than expected.”

“You shouldn’t have to…” Juliet began, but Rick shook his head.

“My call, Jules,” he murmured, “and it is busy out there.”

Magnum stepped aside to let Rick leave, avoiding the glare Higgins was levelling at him. He sat down in the chair his brother had vacated, handed Higgins her laptop, and introduced himself to the couple across the small desk. It didn’t take long for them to fill him in on things. By the time he did, Higgins already had their kids’ phones’ last location.

“Ah,” intoned Higgins, her face studiously neutral as she turned the laptop to Magnum. “That’s interesting.”

“What?” June pressed, leaning forward to try and see the screen of the laptop. “What is it? Where are they?”

“Can you think of any reason why Anthony or Maria might want to go to the Kalihi transit center?” Magnum asked, looking from one parent to the other. “Any reason at all?”

“Could they have been meeting friends there,” suggested Higgins.

June and Kyle looked at each other and shook their heads.

“I work near there,” offered Kyle. “But if they’d been coming to me, there’s a stop right outside the pharmacy that they would have had to pass to get to the transit center.”

“What does that mean?” June asked. “Has somebody kept them on the bus until they got to the transit center then turned off their phones so they can’t be traced?”

Higgins glanced at Magnum. As stoic as his expression was these days, now more so than usual, she had spent long enough working with him to pick up the tiny nuances in the flicker of a glance that came her way to read the thoughts behind it. She looked back to June and Kyle. “It is a possibility, and one that we’ll look into, you have my word. It’s not the only possibility, though, nor even the likeliest. While it is true that switching off your phone at a travel hub like this would help disguise its progress from there, there are plenty of reasons why one would wish to do so. On top of that, there are other things we can try to track your children further. The security cameras will tell us a lot. I have to ask, though: has there been any trouble at home recently? Anything the two of them might want to escape from for a while?”

“No more than a sleep schedule dependent on a one-year-old,” shrugged June, shaking her head.

“Do they have any new friends that might be a bad influence on them?” Magnum suggested, confirming to Higgins the way she had guessed his mind was heading.

“Not that I know of,” answered June, shaking her head again.

“Nor I,” agreed Kyle, putting an arm around his wife. “You think they did this deliberately?”

“To stop you following them,” nodded Higgins. “I think it’s likely, yes. What bus would they most likely have taken to the transit centre?”

“They could walk downhill a bit and take the number two bus,” replied June, “or numbers ten and then one. The number ten stops near our house.”

“And when was the last time you saw them in the house?” Magnum enquired.

“Just after dinner, around six o’clock,” Kyle shrugged. “They went off to their rooms to do some homework.”

“Okay, I’ll cross reference the earliest busses they could have taken to get there and that should give us a time window in which to watch for their arrival.”

“We’ll find them,” Magnum assured the couple. “Don’t worry.”

“He’s right,” nodded Higgins. “Go home. Look after your baby girl. Try to get some sleep.”

“I’d rather stay here with your husband for a while, just in case, if that’s alright,” said June. “The kids always dress up as vampires and ghosts: if they show up here, I’d be more likely to know them under the makeup.”

Juliet carefully unfroze her face. That was a first! Why did it have to happen with Magnum sitting next to her? “Oh! I’m sure that would be fine,” she trilled, smiling her politest smile and trying to ignore the fact her voice was decidedly higher than usual. “He’s not my husband yet, though: we’ve only been dating two months. We haven’t even really discussed that...”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” June apologised. “You just seemed so… together. I know it’s old fashioned of me, but between that and you being English…”

“No, no: it’s fine, um,” Juliet frowned. “Rather a long story and nothing to do with the case, though. I’m sure he and our other friends won’t mind keeping you company for a while: we were planning on having our own little gathering here once the crowds had moved on.”

****

The drive to the transit centre was a relatively short one, but Magnum was irritatingly quiet throughout. Higgins tried to draw him out with theories and hypotheses. Even blatant assumptions! Nothing garnered anything more loquacious than the most perfunctory of unsophisticated, monosyllabic rejoinders. Something was bugging him. It might be the case. It might be whatever he had claimed to be busy working on tonight. It might be something else entirely. Still, he was usually okay when they were working, and Rick had kept himself prudently out of the way, even though she maintained he shouldn’t have to. There had been nothing, that she could think of, to set off this batch of silent treatment. Nothing except maybe June’s assumption of her and Rick’s marital status. That might do it.

The transit centre came into view and they found a space to leave the Ferrari. It wasn’t the first time they’d had to rely on the security cameras of the centre, and Magnum led a bee line to the guard shack.

“Aloha, Hugo,” he called, raising a hand in greeting.

The burly security guard looked round from his multiple screens and nodded back to Magnum and Higgins. “Aloha, Magnum. Aloha, Higgy. Who are we after this time?”

“Two teens,” replied Higgy, glancing over the screens. “They’re out after curfew. Parents don’t know where they are, or even when they left. They’re not answering their phones, and this is the last place they pinged to. They would have come in on either the one or the two between these times.” She handed a scrap of paper to Hugo. “At least, that’s our best guess right now.”

The guard looked down at the times. There were two sets of numbers, one for the number one route, and one for the number two. “Yeah, I can pull those up. No problemo.”

“Thank you, Hugo,” smiled Higgins.

“Anything for a beautiful lady like yourself,” grinned the guard.

“Careful, Hugo: Higgy’s off the market now,” joked Magnum, but there was a hint of sharpness in the words.

“Off the market?” Higgins raised her eyebrows. “What am I: a piece of meat?”

“Who’s the lucky guy?” Hugo chuckled, setting up the playback monitor for them. “He must be something special to win your heart, Higgy: I’d wager there’s not a man on the island who wouldn’t want that honour!”

“Oh, he is,” sighed Thomas. “The best.”

Juliet’s eyes were still on her partner, wondering, when Hugo nodded and slid his chair back.

“All set,” said the guard. “You know what to do.”

Trawling through security camera footage is boring at the best of times. At least they could fast forward from one bus arrival to the next though. They were on the fourth number one bus when Magnum called stop.

“There they are,” he continued, pointing out two teens with backpacks.

“You sure? It’s not the best angle,” hummed Higgins.

“Look at the guy’s shirt: it’s the same one Anthony has on in the photo,” Magnum argued. “The girl’s got an Alice band like the one in the photo too. One on its own is helpful, but both? Plus, general description wise, they match the kids in the photo too.”

“Okay, I’ll grant you that, but we’ve still got half an hour before the phones are switched off.

“I got an idea,” mused Magnum. “Hey Hugo: bring up the bus pass office from this time spot onwards.”

“Don’t you think they’d already have bus passes, Magnum?” Higgins sighed. “Our clients told us they use the busses frequently.”

“Yeah, but they might go there to find out what busses are due. There’s a route map online, but those things are difficult enough to read on a computer screen, never mind a phone!”

“Here it is,” nodded Hugo. “And look: there’s your wayward teens!”

Magnum nodded. He watched as the two teenagers turned and walked out of shot. “What stands are in that direction, Hugo? What busses stop there?”

Hugo pulled up a map of the transit centre on his computer monitor and looked from it to the monitor showing the teens turning away. “Stands six and five,” he replied. “Five isn’t in use right now, but six is. Two busses stop there, both are headed for Waipahu.”

“Can you pull it up for us to confirm?” Higgins requested.

Hugo nodded and did so. Sure enough, the two teens turned up at stand six. Their rucksacks came off and Maria fished two packages out of hers, handing one to Anthony.

“Hey, Hugo,” Magnum began, tapping the frozen screen over the tell-tale packages. “Is there a place near here that sells prepaid phones?”

“No, but I know one they’d have passed on their way,” replied Hugo. He turned over the scrap of paper Higgins had given him and scribbled something on the back. “Here.”

Higgins took the paper and nodded her thanks. Leaving Hugo to return to his usual duties, she passed the paper to Magnum. “If they stopped on the way to buy prepaid phones, and appear to have fully laden rucksacks…”

“Yeah, we’re not dealing with a kidnapping here,” nodded Magnum. “These two are runaways, no question.”

“Well, there is one question,” Higgins pointed out. “What are they running from?”

Chapter Text

Waipahu was not exactly the world-famous holiday hub that Honolulu and Waikiki were, but that was hardly going to be an issue. Almost every mainstream hotel or hostel used credit card checks these days, and neither teen had one to check. Kyle and June had both been called en route and confirmed that none of theirs were missing. Nevertheless, that was where the bus they had boarded had been headed. Although they could not rule out the possibility that the teenagers had disembarked at an earlier stop, Magnum and Higgins knew their best chance of spotting them lay in the Waipahu transit centre and the possibility of camera footage. Neither one of them was particularly familiar with the transit centre there, however, so there was no telling what they might find. Higgins had asked the worried parents if they could make a list of any friends or relations either of the two teens had in the general direction of Waipahu.

“They must have a contact there: someone they’re going to stay with,” she shrugged, slipping her mobile back into her purse. This may be the one night of the year she could run around the island in a mediaeval costume and not raise eyebrows, but the lack of pockets was seriously grating.

“Hmm,” responded Magnum, focussing on the road far more than he ever did usually. He had returned to the uncommunicative neanderthal the moment they’d got back in the Ferrari. Whether he knew it or not, it was starting to get on his partner’s nerves.

“Of course, they might just be heading there to meet our alien overlords and sell the planet into unending slavery,” trilled Higgins. Over the course of several animated discussions, she had promised not to tackle Magnum about how he was treating Rick. She had said nothing about ignoring how he was treating her.

“Hmm,” hummed Magnum again. Then the sentence replayed itself in his brain. “Wait, what?”

“Oh, you are awake. I wondered,” she sniped. “Care to tell me what’s going on in there, or is it part of this top-secret case you’re working on that we both know doesn’t actually exist?”

“Higgy…” Thomas began. He got no further.

“I thought we had got past this, Magnum,” Higgy warned. “You promised me it wasn’t going to affect our work.”

“Yeah, and it isn’t,” he shrugged. “You’re throwing around ideas, that’s all. When we have actual evidence, we have actual discussions. The fact I’m a little less chatty when driving is hardly a hanging offence!”

“Something is on your mind: I can tell,” she pointed out. “If it had nothing to do with me, you would have either told me that already, or told me the whole story. The fact you have done neither speaks volumes!”

“It’s nothing,” retorted Magnum, his voice sharpening in a heartbeat. “It’s one word! One word I got rattling around my brain, that won’t leave me alone.”

“You mean when June called Rick my husband?” Higgy pressed. She would drag it out of him, nothing or not! Better a flaming row that clears the air than sulky silence all evening.

Magnum shook his head. “No, not that. That’s an easy mistake to make and she doesn’t know either of you from Adam.”

Higgy frowned. That was unexpected. “Then what?”

“Yet,” Magnum answered, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead.

The frown deepened. “What?”

“Yet,” Thomas repeated. “You didn’t say he wasn’t your husband. You said he wasn’t your husband yet.”

For a few interminable moments, Juliet was silent. The word had barely registered at the time. She sat back in her seat pensively, staring at the road ahead. “Oh.”

“You didn’t know you’d said it?” Thomas asked, eyes flicking between her and the road.

This time it was Juliet’s turn to resort to single syllables. “No.”

“Did you mean it?” Thomas persisted. “I mean: is that really on the table already?”

Juliet thought about this. They hadn’t talked about marriage as such, but they had talked about other things. They agreed before they even started – well, officially started – that this was serious: that they were both in it for the long haul. There was too much at stake to risk it all for anything less! They had slipped into domesticity so easily in London that it had crossed her mind, but it had never come up in conversation. Since their return, life had taken over and somehow, most nights, she had ended up at his apartment. It was ironic really: here she was with a home that could have housed their entire group and had more rooms left spare than used, yet still she chose to spend her nights in a tiny, one bedroom apartment with neighbours on all sides. “Yes,” she said, finally. “Yes, I suppose it is.”

****

Rick dodged a werewolf, then a zombie, a tray of empty glasses in his hands. They wobbled a bit, but nothing fell. He made it back to the bar without further undead incursions, though there was one moment a pirate nearly careened into him. No more rum for that one! Behind him, the crowd was dancing to Thriller. There was no question he’d booked the right band. They’d kept the bar buzzing all evening. The kid he’d promised to keep an eye on was gone now, and his service dog with him. He’d texted his dad to come pick him up when the noise started getting louder and the crowd denser. By the look of things, he’d had fun though, and Rick was glad of that.

He set the tray down on the bar and started unloading the empties. June was sitting nearby with Kumu, scanning the crowd and talking directly into each other’s ears. It was the only way to hear anything now: the party was at its peak and the music at its loudest. In an hour or so, the crowds would start to thin and disperse, heading home or, possibly, to a club somewhere. That was when their own little party was supposed to start. Shammy would be here by then, and hopefully Jules would be back with the wandering teenagers in tow. Thomas too, of course.

Thomas.

Part of him hoped Thomas would stay for the party. A big part of him. Most of him, really. There was just this one tiny little, miniscule iota of his being that dreaded what might happen if he did. Sure, they were brothers, and they loved each other like brothers, TC had that much right, but he knew his brother. Thomas wasn’t okay with things. With him. Juliet dating someone else might have been difficult enough for him. If the way Rick had felt watching her with Ethan was any indication of what Tommy was going through right now, he would hardly choose to be around them. Even though, on the rare occasions the three of them were in the same room together, Rick made a point of keeping his hands to himself. That wasn’t the problem though, and he knew it. He should have said something to Thomas first.

A glass slipped through his fingers and smashed on the floor. Rick swore and dived to scoop up the fragmented remains. Almost immediately he swore again and resurfaced holding his hand. Blood oozed between his fingers faster than he would have liked.

“I got it, Orville,” called TC, arriving with dustpan and brush at the ready. “Go get that cleaned up.”

“I can help,” offered June, hurrying round to the other side of the bar. “I’m a nurse: it’s what I do. Where’s your first aid kit?”

“There’s one in the kitchen and one in the office,” replied Rick.

June nodded and filled a clean glass with water. “Your office will be easier: you can sit down, for starters.”

Once in the office, attempting not to bleed on his paperwork, Rick sat down and let June take charge. The first aid kit was a decent one: it had to be when you were an FOM! June cleared a space on the desk and set to work. Rick winced a bit, but not much. He’d had far worse.

“Thank you for doing this,” muttered Rick. “It was stupid of me: my mind was on other things.”

“Things like your girlfriend?” June smiled. “You don’t get on with her partner much, do you.”

“That’s just a recent, temporary thing,” Rick shrugged. “Tommy and me, we go way back. We served together: he’s my brother. We’re just having a hard time adjusting to new realities, him and I. It’s sorta through him that I got to know Jules, but he wasn’t expecting it when we got together.”

“You and Jules knew each other for a while before you became a couple?” June asked, keeping her patient’s mind off the pain and the blood.

“Years,” nodded Rick, mulling something over. “She was a little different back then though. More walls. Hey, can I ask you something personal?”

“I reserve the right not to answer, but go ahead and ask,” shrugged June.

“When you lost your husband – Anthony’s father – how long did it take before you felt you were over it? Able to fall in love again? To, maybe, get engaged again?”

June sighed and looked at him. “Those are three very different things,” she replied. “I don’t know that I’ll ever fully be over it. I know I’ll never stop loving Anthony’s father. But that doesn’t stop me loving someone else. Let me guess. Those walls you mentioned: Jules lost someone close?”

“Her fiancé,” nodded Rick. “He was murdered too.”

June nodded. “Don’t let that stop you. If she’s not ready, she’ll tell you, but remember that “not ready” is not the same as “not ever”. I wasn’t ready the first time Kyle asked me. We agreed that when I was, I would ask him. Took me just over six months, but then something just clicked. I realised I had been given a second chance to find love, and I was wasting time. I went down to the store where he works right after I had finished my shift and asked him right there in front of everyone, customers and all. We’ve never looked back.”

“So, just… be patient, is that what you’re saying?” Rick queried. “Don’t worry if she sometimes remembers him or talks about him.”

“Be patient, yes,” June nodded, “but be clear too. Tell her what you want from this. She has to know there’s a decision to make if you want her to make it. And let her talk. Talking about those we’ve lost helps, you must know that. Especially when it’s someone close, and even more so when we lose them suddenly. It reminds us that they were there, they existed, they mattered to us… and we mattered to them. It hurts to remember losing someone we’ve loved so much, even if, like me, you believe they’ve moved on to a better place now. Talking about them hurts too, but it’s like lancing a boil. It lets out some of that pain until we can remember them without feeling the world crashing down around us, or the unwillingness of our lungs to operate or our heart to beat. Talking about them helps get the pain and the loss and the anger out of our way so that we can reach the good memories of them, the ones we want to treasure, without feeling like we’re picking up shards of broken glass every time we remember them.”

“Yeah,” frowned Rick, looking down at his hand, “I can relate to that. I’ve never lost someone I was in love with, the way Jules was, but I’ve lost family.”

“Loving them didn’t stop you loving others, did it?” June pointed out.

“Well, no, but…”

“Love is love,” shrugged June. “It’s not about more or less, it’s about yes or no. Do you love her? Does she love you? Whether it’s romantic or platonic, it only matters that you’re on the same page. After that it’s all just about trust and communication.”

****

There was no guarantee that Anthony and Maria would have disembarked their bus at Waipahu transit centre, but it was the only stop Higgins and Magnum were even vaguely sure would have security footage. In other words: it was worth a try. There was no guard shack at Hikimoe Street, however, and that meant there were no security cameras either. At least, none pointed in the right direction!

Magnum groaned and turned to Higgins. “Plan B?”

Kyle had sent over the names of as many contacts in the Waipahu area and beyond as he could think of that either Anthony or Maria knew. There weren’t many. Magnum held out his hand for the list. Higgins passed him her phone and pulled out her laptop. As she endeavoured to identify possible routes from Waipahu, she shuffled in her seat, elbowing swathes of fabric out of the way of her hands.

“Why are you in that get up anyway, Higgy?” Magnum enquired. “I didn’t take you for the damsel in distress type!”

“I’m not,” she muttered, tucking a stray lock of hair back into her wimple, “and I’m Maid Marian: hardly a damsel in distress! She saves Robin as often as he saves her, by my count.”

“Yeah, but still…” The penny dropped. Rick and Higgy. Halloween. That haunted house case. “Oh. Right. That Maid Marian. You two weren’t together then, though, were you?”

Higgins looked round with a slight frown. “Of course not! It was the last time either of us dressed up for Halloween though, and I teased him a little. No: if we were an item back then we would have said something.”

“Would you, though?” Thomas queried.

Higgins’ eyebrows rose.

“Sorry. Forget I said that,” Thomas sighed. “It was stupid of me.”

“Precisely,” murmured Higgins, turning back to her laptop. “Right, we have so many options they could just about be anywhere on the island by now.”

“Let’s assume they’re headed in the same direction then,” suggested Magnum.

“Without security footage to verify we can’t even assume they took the bus as far as this! Maybe they’re in Aiea or Salt Lake!” Higgins argued, throwing up her hands. “We have nothing to go on, Magnum!”

“We have their dad’s list, that’s something,” he shrugged. “Look, Higgy, just put yourself in their shoes. You’re running away from home. You’re scared, but you’re together. You need somewhere to sleep that won’t ask too many questions. Where do you go?”

“Me? A homeless shelter,” shrugged Higgins. “I can be whoever I want there and nobody need know any different.”

“That’s more difficult if there’s two of you,” he argued, “especially if you have parents who might send out an amber alert.”

“Okay, where would you go?” Higgins enquired.

“Well, my first choice would be some friend whose parents were out of town for a while,” he surmised, scrolling down the list from Kyle. “From this it looks like I might have three options: one in Kapolei, one here in Waipahu, and the third in Makaha. I say we check them out, starting with the one here and working our way out to the one in Makaha.”

Higgins shrugged her eyebrows. “Might as well. It’s not like there’s anything else.”

“What’s wrong?”

Juliet looked at him askance. “What do you mean?”

Magnum chuckled. “This is not the never-say-die, indomitable, British stiff-upper-lip, utter stubbornness I have come to expect from you Higgins! You almost sound like you don’t actually want to find these kids!”

Higgins sighed. “Let’s just say I’m feeling a little conflicted.”

“About what?” Magnum pressed. “They’re kids and they’re missing!”

“They’re teenagers who have clearly deliberately planned to run away,” she pointed out. “They’re not little kids who have got lost! You saw their backpacks.”

“Okay,” he shrugged, “but they’re not adults yet, either of them.”

“Don’t you at least think we should find out why they ran away?” Higgins queried. “I mean: there might be some very valid reason for their absence. Do we really want to drag them back if that’s the case?”

“If that’s the case, probably not,” he agreed, “but, if that’s the case, they’re probably still gonna need our help. Besides: the easiest way to find out why they ran is just to find them and ask them.”

“That I grant you,” sighed Higgins, “I just feel like we’re missing something obvious here.”

“Well,” shrugged Magnum, “we can try to work out what that is while we check these addresses. Come on.”

The first of the three was a house on Hulahe street. It was swathed in utter darkness with no car in the driveway. All the same, after a full inspection of the exterior, Higgins knocked first. It was well after ten o’clock and heading for eleven. The occupants may well just be in bed. If those occupants happened to be the teens they were after, and they tried to head out the back, she and Thomas could easily catch them up. When no response came to the persistent knocking, she stepped back and let Magnum pick the lock. She was faster, but he needed the practise.

Inside, the house had that silent stillness that all unoccupied houses seem to have. Nevertheless, they quietly worked their way through each of the rooms, meeting back at the door. Higgins shook her head. Magnum just shrugged.

“One down, two to go,” he murmured, leading the way back to the Ferrari.

****

Rick looked down at his hand. It stung a bit, particularly when he forgot about it and hit the wound on something, but the bandage was holding up well against the rigors of the job. June had left, now it was clear the teens were not going to turn up at the bar, and Kumu was chatting with Shammy, in full costume as Doctor Everett Scott. TC was busy with a customer. Rick looked down and flexed his fingers again. It was the ache more than the sting that was bugging him. He had some painkillers out in the car though.

“Hey, TC, you okay here for a minute?” Rick asked, nudging his friend. “I’m just gonna nip out to the car and back.”

“Yeah, no problem, brother: I got this,” nodded TC.

Rick ducked out through the back door. His car was parked close by, but he had barely reached the door when he heard the low murmur of voices. He frowned. There were plenty of reasons why two people might take themselves somewhere quiet and at least reasonably private, but this didn’t sound like one of the more innocent ones. He tipped his head to the sound and edged closer, listening. His jaw tightened at what he heard. Not here. Not around his bar. He was not having that happen here. The question was: what to do about it? If he went for backup, the dealer and his customer may both vanish into the crowds. If he tackled them alone, he risked taking on two people, at least one of whom was very likely armed. He chewed his lip in thought and pulled out his phone. The first text was to TC.

“Get out here ASAP. Quietly. Minor problem.”

The second was to Katsumoto.

“Drug dealer behind bar. TC + me on it. Will hold them here for you.”

By the time the text sent, TC was by his side. Rick showed him the text he had sent Katsumoto and signalled where the dealer was. There had been some haggling over the price, but it sounded like his current deal was nearly done. TC nodded and followed Rick around the corner. The buyer was fast on his feet and already turning away, but it was the dealer they were really after. TC grabbed him and pinned his arms. Rick deftly removed the knife that had made its way into their quarry’s hand.

“You picked the wrong bar to pollute, pal,” snarled Rick.

“This here is our bar,” growled TC, “and we don’t take kindly to cowards like you poisoning our customers.”

The dealer looked from one to the other of them. “So what? You gonna beat me up? Won’t be the first time, and you’ll only end up wishing you’d stayed out of it!”

“We’re not gonna beat you up!” Rick scoffed. “We’re the good guys! Nah, we’re just gonna tie you up and wait for a detective friend of ours to come collect you. Oh, and we’ll lock you in the walk-in too, just in case you got any more of these little babies on you.” Rick spun the knife in his fingers. “Here’s hoping it’s a quiet night for him, or who knows how long you’ll be in there!”

****

Kapolei was a little further west of Waipahu, and the address Kyle had provided took Higgins and Magnum into a fairly recently built part of town. They pulled up outside a house at the far end of a cul de sac, set a little further back from the road than some, with a large driveway that now included a red Ferrari.

“It’s like Brookside with palm trees,” commented Higgins, climbing out of the car and looking round.

“Say what now?” Magnum chuckled, throwing her an odd look.

“British soap opera from long ago,” replied Higgy, rolling her eyes. “Don’t even know if it’s still on the telly!”

There was no chance they had the address wrong: you could hear the music from the driveway.

“Okay, how much do you want to bet our teenage runaways are in there, partying it up with their buddies?” Magnum chuckled.

Higgins tipped her head to one side. “I don’t know, Magnum. Remember the backpacks?”

“Costumes for the party and an overnight bag,” laughed her partner. “Come on: didn’t you ever sneak out to one of these things when you were in school?”

“I was in boarding school, Magnum,” Higgins reminded him. “What chums I had were in there with me and if any of the daisies had any such parties, we certainly did not get invited!”

Magnum stopped in his tracks and looked at her. “Daisies?”

“Day girls,” Higgins explained. “Girls who attended during teaching hours then went home again in the evening.”

“Huh,” he opined. “And they didn’t get on with the girls who didn’t?”

“Ah, no, not exactly,” laughed Higgy. “No, the reason my chums and I were never invited to such events was more a matter of class than anything else. We were scholarship girls, all four of us. We had a room to ourselves. We kept out of the way of the little princesses who thought they ruled the place, and we wiped the floor with them in every test we ever sat. I didn’t wait until I joined MI6 to start learning to fight!”

“All four, huh?” Magnum chuckled. “Please tell me one now solves crimes and the other two own a bar!”

Higgy raised an eyebrow at this. Rick had made the same comparison back in London when she had told him the story. Of course, he had already met the one who solved crimes. He still hadn’t told her what Jane had said to him that day, before the bus incident occurred, but she thought she could guess. The memory of the bus flashed across her mind again and her footing faltered.

“Higgy?”

Magnum’s voice broke the fragile bubble of her reverie and Juliet looked round. “Hmm? Oh! No, no pub, I’m afraid. One does work for Scotland Yard though. Her name’s Jane. She helped us with the London case.”

“Oh,” murmured Magnum. His brow wrinkled and he looked away. “Hey, what just happened there? One minute you were okay and smiling, the next you weren’t. Was it something I said?”

“No,” Juliet shook her head and paused. They were about half way up the driveway. “No, nothing like that. It’s just…” She tailed off, unsure how much to share with Thomas. He had always been a good listener, but he’d never had to listen to her talk about Rick before. And with things as they were…

“What? What is it?” Thomas frowned. He had stopped walking when he noticed she had. Now he walked back the few paces to her side. “It’s about Rick, isn’t it?”

“I had no idea how much I cared for him until I thought he was gone, I swear,” promised Juliet, watching her partner like he might bolt at any second.

“He told me you thought the bus hit him at first,” Thomas admitted, letting his mind go over that phone call for the thousandth time and more. “That a problem, brother?” The words echoed in his mind like the cry of some accusing raven. “He said you were a little shaken by it.”

“That’s an understatement!” Juliet sighed, her brows flitting upwards again. “When did he say that?”

“When he called to check in, just after you two had got back to your flat,” replied Thomas. “Why?”

“Ah, well yes, I suppose that would rather cover it,” she admitted. “It wasn’t until later that he found out just how much it had affected me.”

Thomas tipped his head to one side and frowned, watching and waiting patiently.

“I was in an alley between buildings when the bus went past the end of it,” Juliet began. “He was chasing our murderer and was just at the edge of my view, then the bus went by and he was gone. Time just seemed to stand still. It was like the world stopped. I couldn’t breathe. I was sure my heart had stopped beating. Then the bus was gone and he was there, standing in the middle of the road with car horns blaring. It was like somebody had pressed pause, then play: sound came back along with everything else. I may have had a minor meltdown then, and when he got back to me I said some pretty horrible things to him. Things I had to apologise for later, along with one or two other things that happened in between.”

“Things like?” Thomas pressed. He wasn’t usually this pushy when Juliet had something on her mind, but there were things he wanted to know. He had no right to know them, and he didn’t really expect an answer from either of them if he asked them directly, but maybe he might get enough information here to satisfy at least one point that irked him.

Juliet paused, looking down at her hands. She nodded to herself, as if having come to a decision. “I couldn’t sleep. All I could see was that bus, every time I closed my eyes. It was like a part of me was stuck there in that fraction of a second where I felt the world imploding around me. I can only remember feeling like that once before: when I found out that Richard was dead.” She let the words sink in for a moment. “But this wasn’t Richard, it was Rick. And I never expected to feel like that again. Not even for one of my friends. I had to try and get it out of my head, so I went through to the kitchen and started cleaning. Some inane, overdue task that I could focus on without having to think too much. He heard me, came through, asked what was going on. I told him, at least I told him I couldn’t stop seeing the bus, and I reached out to him. I reached out to him, Thomas, not the other way round. I hugged him, then he put his arms around me. I don’t know who kissed whom first: we both thought it was ourselves the next morning. Maybe we met in the middle somewhere. Either way, we kissed. Dragging myself out of that kiss was one of the hardest things I have had to do, but I did, because I knew I wasn’t in the right headspace and I didn’t want to wake up next to him the next day and wonder if he was only there because he thought I needed him. Needless to say, there were a series of awkward conversations the next morning where we each tried to apologise to the other, but things had changed between us and no amount of apologies could change them back. And no matter how much he tried to apologise, it was my fault, not his, that things changed. My fault he was there. My arms that went round him first.”

“You really had no idea you felt that way about him?” Thomas asked after a moment.

“I knew I felt something for him,” Juliet shrugged. “It wasn’t what I’d call love. I was fond of him, of course. I trusted him. There were… moments, shall we say, when I’d looked at him with other eyes. He does scrub up very well, in his uniform, even if he does make the most bizarre sandwiches and can’t sing for sixpence!”

Thomas frowned. “I feel I should know this moment, but I don’t.”

“You were busy being kidnapped,” Juliet supplied. She frowned down at her hands again. “You know I haven’t even told him that yet. We’ve talked about love, but not… not anything else. Really didn’t expect to be telling you that before him!”

“Why are you telling me this?” Thomas asked, scrutinising her averted face.

Juliet shrugged. “It felt like you needed to know. Like I needed you to know. I was the catalyst. I started this. Not him. He would have gone on for I don’t know how long without saying anything if I hadn’t. He asked me about you, you know. He asked if there had ever been, or might ever be, more than friendship between you and me. My answer was no. I told him you were like a brother to me. An annoying little brother, to be precise. I still believe he would have walked away from this if I’d said anything else. You should know that. You need to know that.”

Thomas was silent for a moment then shook his head and started walking again. “You know I’m older than you, right?”

“And your point is?” Higgy quipped, falling into step beside him.

Magnum chuckled. “So: I think the teens are here, you think they’re not. Care to make it interesting?”

Higgy pursed her lips and considered this. “Okay,” she nodded. “Winner gets to drive the Ferrari wherever we end up headed next.”

Magnum laughed. “You’re on!”

The drive to Makaha took just over half an hour, and Higgy loved every minute of it!

****

Katsumoto wasn’t quite as hacked off as usual by the civilian arrest at La Mariana. In fact, he was almost cheerful. A colleague went about the intricacies of arresting the dealer formally while he took down Rick and TC’s statements himself.

“Nice to get one of the real monsters off the street at Halloween,” he joked. “Is this the first time you’ve had drugs show up here, or just the first time you’ve been able to catch them?”

Rick shook his head. “We haven’t spotted anything before tonight, but we wouldn’t have caught this guy if I hadn’t had to duck out to the car for some painkillers.” He waved his bandaged hand in evidence. “If we had any clue this was going on, you’d have been the first to know.”

“Sure I wouldn’t have been second? Third maybe?” Gordy grinned.

“Maybe once,” shrugged TC, with a teasing smile, “but we know you better now. Besides: Tommy and Higgy are off on a case somewhere anyway!”

“There’s been an increase in the drugs trade recently,” Katsumoto informed them, slipping back into his formal self. “Keep an eye out: where there’s one, there’s probably more. You’re gonna need to watch out for other things too. This guy isn’t exactly top of the food chain. When he said you’d regret this, he probably meant it. His bosses will hear what happened and, when they do, might want to take some kind of revenge. You need to be careful.”

“Duly noted,” nodded TC. “What are we talking here? A couple of heavies showing up with baseball bats or…”

“I don’t know,” cut in Gordy, shaking his head. “These drugs aren’t coming from the usual sources. There’s a new player on the island, and they’re untested. We have no idea how they’ll react. I do know that any new player challenged for the first time will want to make an impression, so watch your back.”

“Any leads on who this new player is?” Rick asked, watching the dealer being carted off in handcuffs.

“Do you really think I’d tell you if I had?” Katsumoto asked. “These guys are dangerous! I can’t have you two running all over the island trying to track a group of drug dealers down! Especially not while Magnum’s still trying to track down The Collective on his own!”

“Wait, he’s doing what now?” Rick’s eyebrows shot up. Was this the case Thomas had said he was working on? It had been two months and no sign of the group. Surely he had dropped it by now? Then again, it was Thomas, and Thomas in need of a distraction at that!

“You didn’t know?” Gordy frowned.

“You think he’d be doing this alone if we did?” TC shot back.

“Fair point,” sighed Katsumoto. “Look, I tried to warn him off it: I really did!”

“Tommy’s gonna do what Tommy’s gonna do,” shrugged Rick. “Believe me, I know that!”

“Yeah,” muttered TC. “Hey Gordy, if TM’s headed for trouble, give us a heads up, okay?”

“Will do,” Katsumoto nodded, he looked around at his departing officers. Time to head back to base. “Mahalo, guys. Remember what I said.”

“Head on a swivel, copy,” Rick called back.

TC watched Katsumoto and his team leave then looked back to Rick. His friend was frowning at nothing, chewing his lip, and tapping the pack of painkillers against his uninjured hand.

“Stop it,” TC sighed. “Thomas is responsible for his actions, not you.”

“I didn’t say a word!” Rick protested.

“You didn’t have to, brother,” retorted TC. “You get the same look on your face every time TM comes up with an excuse to get out of being in the same room as you. It’s his issue. Not yours. He’ll come round. Just give him time.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” grumbled Rick, “but Tommy’s coping mechanism seems to be taking on a far-right terrorist group single-handed! I give him much more time, and he’s gonna go get himself killed!”

“Come on, man: when have you ever known Tommy to get completely out of his depth?”

Rick turned an eloquent look on TC.

TC rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, forget I said that.”

“We gotta talk to him about this!”

“How ’bout I talk to him about this,” TC suggested. “That way he can’t…”

“Can’t what?” Rick asked, his frown deepening. He crossed his arms and met TC’s hesitant gaze. “Can’t make Jules feel like she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place?”

“I was goin’ for he can’t say Higgy’s only agreein’ with us because she’s datin’ you, but yeah, that too,” Admitted TC with a sheepish shrug.

“Great!” Rick slumped back against the wall.

“Look, we all know Higgy will side with whoever has the best, most logical, most sensible argument,” said TC, waving a hand at thin air in lieu of Higgins herself. “We all know that! Tommy too! He’s just not in the right place to recognise that just now. He’ll come…”

“Yeah, I get it,” snapped Rick, pushing himself up off the wall. “He’ll come around! Give him time! I’m gonna go serve some customers. Seems it’s all I’m good for these days!”

The door through to the bar swung shut, and TC swung his eyes heavenward, offering up a silent prayer for patience. At least, when she’d been dating Ethan, it was only Higgy that had been stuck between a rock and a hard place! He breathed in deeply, let it out slowly, and followed Rick back into the bar.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: Makaha

I know Higgins is angry with me. She’s laughing and smiling now, but only because she won that bet and got me out of the driver’s seat. Still: at least that gave me time to think. There’s no way she would have volunteered that information had she been dating anyone else. I get it: if she’s not with me on the job, she’s with him, and because I’m being such a jackass, I’m making her feel like she has to choose between us every time there isn’t a case on the go. And all because I’m blaming him. I know she chooses him, every time, and I guess I know she always will now, but I get the feeling she hates that she has to, and that there’s this rift between Rick and me. I’m making this difficult for her. I’m not trying to, but I am. I know now what he was asking, with that phone call after the bus thing. I guess I never really got just how deep things went for either of them before… Well, just before.

There are things she doesn’t know, though. Things I’ve been keeping from her, and from Rick and TC. Things I can’t risk bringing them into. These guys – the collective – they haven’t just given up. Between HPD, Five-O and us, we completely messed up their plans two months back. Sure, they managed to do tragic and horrendous damage with the bomb we missed, but something’s been bugging me about that blast. Why pick that tower? I mean: if you wanted to do maximum damage, and had enough explosives to break into one of those things, which isn’t easy for obvious reasons, then why pick the one tower blocked off from the rest by an empty one? It’s like trying to set up a domino chain and starting it at the end with a domino missing. If they’d set the charge at the other end, they’d have started a chain of explosions that would have taken out the bridge to Sand Island, and probably half the island itself along with it. It might not have reached as much of the harbour, but the damage would have been much, much more.

It also might not have reached La Mariana. If there had been a little more fuel in the tower that did go up though…

I can’t risk bringing the guys into this any further than they already are.

The only things I know about this group, really, are that they are good at planning things, and they’re patient. That bomb didn’t fit with that pattern. That worries me. Now they’ve gone quiet again and I know – I just know – they’re planning something. I just wish I knew what.

****

TC cast a glance over to Rick. He was his usual cheery self to his customers, dealing with whatever request should come his way. Only TC knew the smile was a mask. They all had them. It was how they dealt with the things they had lived through. Thomas had the know-it-all, devil-may-care smile that convinced everyone, even Higgy to begin with, that he was a cheerful Casanova without a care in the world. Rick had the smile of the court jester, always ready with a joke, as if the cares of the world stuck to him like a drop of water sticks to a flame. Problem was: that drop was beginning to become a downpour!

He had his own smile, he knew: the smile of the unmoving stone within the stream. Where his brothers sought to fight off the darkness in their lives, he sought to balance it. To accept it. Nuzo had been the same. He had introduced TC to a few things that had helped him, but they both agreed Rick and Thomas had taken a different route.

It really shouldn’t have surprised him so much that they had both fallen for the same woman.

Rick buzzed about the bar like a fly on a corpse. He was certainly focussed, TC thought. That meant he was avoiding something. Higgy or Thomas? TC turned his attention to the beer he was uncapping and did the job that was in front of him. That was something they had always done, in the service and out. You did the job that was in front of you, whether that was pulling a pint, flying a chopper, or catching a criminal. Only once the necessary was done did you get to think about the unnecessary. He rung up the sale and charged the customer’s phone. Life was so much easier with contactless! His eyes flitted to Rick again, chatting with a customer. Laughing.

Laughter was both a shield and a pressure valve to his brother. TC wondered which it was this time.

****

Rick chuckled as his customer turned away, but then the mask fell. It didn’t drop completely: other customers may be watching. Besides: he had spent most of his life hiding behind a laugh. It was almost second nature by now! The fact that every customer was a necessary distraction from the fact that Jules was out there, right now, with a guy who had apparently just painted a target on his back and refused to ask for help, was surely just a secondary benefit, right? If something happened to her because Tommy had decided now was a good time to shut them out, he would never forgive him. He would never forgive himself either.

****

There were times when Hawaii reminded Juliet of the south of France, and this was one of them. The streets of Makaha were laden with dust, trees, and pickup trucks, once one was off the main road. The street they had been directed to was nothing less, even if one of said trees arced over the road like the entrance to Narnia in summer!

She pulled up in the shade of the tree in question and got out of the car. “Well?”

“Don’t look at me: I thought they’d be at the last place!” Magnum shot back with a shrug. He exited the car and joined her by the low wall of the property. “Your move, sister: what now?”

Higgins rolled her eyes. They were doing that, were they? Fine. “The lot on this side seems empty, they have the ocean behind them,” she summarised. “I’ll take the front door; you head round the back via the far side. If they’re going to bolt, they’ll bolt that way.”

Magnum nodded. “Okay,” he agreed. “Shout if you need me.”

“I may look like a damsel in distress, Magnum, but that does not immediately mean that I am one,” Higgins retorted. She cast her eyes over the extensive villa they were now heading towards. “Nevertheless, you may assume that I know my own limits. If I need you, I’ll call.”

Instead of knocking, this time, Higgins picked the lock. The door opened into a hallway with a dining room on one side and a living room on the other. From the dining room, a kitchen opened up. In front of her she saw the hallway extend to the far side of the house. Waves crashed against the shore at the far end of their back garden. At the far end of the hallway, Higgins looked from the study or library on one side to the small cache of bedrooms on the other. Casting a cursory glance into the former, she unlocked the back door. “Come on, Magnum: no sign so far.”

A corridor with enough windows to class as a porch led her towards the bedrooms. A door just the far side of the kitchen opened on to a set of stairs down into a basement. With Magnum at her back, she left him to check or guard it, and continued on to the bedrooms. As Higgins turned, she spotted him hovering in the junction of the front hallway. From there he could see both exits at once. It was, she had to admit, a sensible position to occupy.

The master bedroom was untouched. The other looked like that of a professional teenager! Laundry was strewn where it fell. Dirt too, no doubt! She had checked the en suite of the first bedroom, she may as well check the one in here too. There was quite the layer of grime that had built up over the preceding weeks. This was a summer house between summers. One of those ancient relics from a time when one only had to make an unchecked comment to have all eyes turn on you.

Higgins returned to the hallway, shaking her head at Magnum when his eyes turned to her. He tipped his head to the left and she nodded. The only room left to check now was the basement. She reached it first and opened the door. The bright light of the full moon and a myriad of shining stars cascaded through the floor to ceiling windows behind her, illuminating the top of the staircase, but not much beyond that. A switch sat innocently by the side of the door, offering the option of more light. Higgins peered into the gloom, letting her eyes adjust. How many times had she seen a film character do this? Of course, in real life there was no sudden rush of air, nor eerie music to warn the viewer this was a trap. If people in horror movies could hear their soundtrack, she thought, would any of them ever go down into a basement again?

A small landing half-way down the stairs faded into view. Great: not only was it a dark and creepy staircase, on Halloween, it was also one that she couldn’t see the end of. Higgins sighed. They were only a pair of rebellious teenagers, not some hockey mask wearing or machete wielding psychopath with homicidal tendencies. She flicked on the light. Was that a shuffle she heard below? Lifting the hem of her costume in a genteel parody of delicacy, she stepped onto the stairs. They creaked.

Of course they did!

By the time she’d reached the landing, she had a clear view of them both, now awake and huddled on the sofa-bed that had been pulled out for them. One glance was enough to fill in the missing detail.

“Got them, Magnum!” Higgins called up. She turned back to the teens, who were blinking in the light. “Right, you two: get your things. Your parents are worried sick!”

“We can’t go back!” Maria protested. “They won’t understand!”

“Oh, I think they will,” sighed Higgy. “I think they will, if you give them a chance. I’m sure we can help.”

“Help with what?” Magnum called down. He was at the top of the stairs now, a shadow in the moonlight filled doorway, above the level of the basement lights.

“It appears our Claudio and Isabella are more like Romeo and Juliet,” Higgy called up. “They don’t seem to think their parents would approve.”

“To them we’re brother and sister,” Anthony insisted. “They won’t let us be anything else!”

“We can’t go back to that!” Maria continued. “We won’t.”

Higgins sighed. She couldn’t exactly say she was unfamiliar with the feeling. “I get that, believe me. More than you know. And because of that, I will help you explain things to your parents. They need to know, though. I’m sure, once they get used to the idea, they’ll be okay with it. They know you’re not really siblings by blood. Come on. I’m not leaving without you. Either you come with us willingly or my partner will call your parents to come and collect you. Then we can all have that discussion right here if you like. You won’t be able to get past both of us. Your call.”

Higgins folded her arms and waited. There was a moment of silent debate between the teens, then, Maria first, they began gathering their belongings. Higgins shifted into the corner of the landing as the two mounted the stairs. The boards below her creaked with the additional weight. She glanced up at Magnum, awaiting the runaways at the top of the staircase. Silhouetted against the night sky beyond, it was impossible to tell if he’d heard the noise. He made no obvious move or sign that he had, but perhaps he didn’t realise just how little she could see of his expression.

The teens were onto the upper part of the stairs now. Higgy began following a step or two behind. The creaks and groans of the wood were louder now. She paused. Perhaps best to let the additional weight get off the longer, unsupported part of the old staircase.

The step below her groaned again. Higgins froze. Gently, her hands floated out to the bannister on either side, her long cuffs fanning out across the intervening space. She waited.

Above her, she heard Magnum bark out an order. “Come on, kids, let’s hustle here!”

So, he had spotted it then. The wood around her creaked and groaned again as first Maria, then Anthony, left it.

“Come on, Higgy, make a run for it,” Magnum suggested, proving, as if he needed to do so, that he had no idea what difficulties long skirts and dainty slippers posed when running.

“I vote next year, you can wear the ridiculous costume,” Higgy called back.

“So grab your skirts and run for it,” Magnum laughed. “Nobody here is gonna care if they see your ankles, or whatever was deemed inappropriate in tenth century England!”

“Twelfth century!” Higgy shot back, aware that removing her hands from the bannisters would put more of her weight on the creaking plank below her, as would stepping off it.

“Whatever!” Magnum chuckled. “Come on!”

Gingerly testing the next plank with one slippered foot, Higgins shifted her weight forward. The next plank groaned a warning too. She sighed out a long breath. There was nothing for it. She would have to run.

Everything moved at once. Hands flew from bannisters to skirts, hiking them up out of the way of the back foot that was already flying forwards, pushing down on the next plank and letting what had been her front foot do likewise.

She almost made it.

The last step, shaken by her movement over the others, split below her. With a cry of alarm, she was dropping almost straight downwards, her momentum doing little to drive her forwards. Higgins flung out her arms in vain hope of some support. Another arm grabbed her and hauled her up, swinging her out into the moonlit corridor and landing both of them heavily against the wall.

“Definitely not a damsel in distress,” quipped Magnum, meeting her eye with the barest hint of a smug grin. Not that Higgins could see much of it: they were nose to nose. It was there in his voice though.

“That could just as easily have been you in there,” she retorted, disentangling herself and her sleeves from his arms.

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t be wearing this encumbrance,” he chuckled, waving his hands at the gently shimmering dress.

“Neither would I, normally, as you well know!” Higgy shot back. She turned to the teens. “Right, let’s get you two home.”

****

The band was packing up, the bar was emptying. All in all, it had been a good night. TC waved goodbye to the last of their patrons as Rick helped the drummer carry the last of his kit out the back.

The band had a van, not entirely dissimilar to TC’s, that they used to haul their gear around in. It had been moved up to the back door of the bar when they began disassembling their kit. Rick and the drummer heaved the largest and heaviest of the items into the waiting rear of the van, the drummer hopping up beside it.

“Thanks, man,” he called to Rick, raising a hand to wave before closing the double doors.

Rick waved goodbye to the group, watching the van trundle off into the darkness. It was only once the van had all but vanished from sight that he felt the hairs on the back of his neck start to rise. Silently, he swore.

Hands grabbed him before he could turn, throwing him backwards against the wall of the bar. A fist slammed into his jaw, another into his solar plexus. His knees were knocked from under him. A foot connected with his shoulder. Something hard hit the small of his back. Another fist hit his temple, his head ricocheting off the hard ground beneath him. After that the hits, punches, kicks, whatever, all began to blur into one. Whatever. He’d had worse.

****

Once again, Magnum was in the driving seat. On the plus side, Juliet thought, this meant they might actually get back to La Mariana before Rick and the others had given up on them entirely. Not that she wouldn’t mind making it up to him, of course. She looked down at her mobile phone. She had called their clients and updated them, at least partially. They knew their offspring were safe and on their way home, they just didn’t know why they had left in the first place. She may as well let the others know that they were on their way back, triumphant, right? She selected Rick’s number from the list of favourites and pressed dial.

No answer.

“Magnum?” Higgins murmured, barely audible over the sound of the Ferrari.

“Yeah, Higgy?”

“Can this thing go any faster?”

The Ferrari accelerated. To his credit, he didn’t even ask her why.

****

TC’s phone sang out Higgy’s ringtone. He chuckled a little before answering it. “Fallen out with lover-boy already?”

“Rick’s not answering his phone,” replied Juliet, before TC had finished speaking.

TC froze, frowned, and looked around him. Only Higgy kept her phone on silent, though, and Kumu when she had a tour to lead. If Rick or his phone had been nearby, he would have heard something, and he should have been back from helping the band by now. “I’m on my way.”

****

Costume or no costume, Juliet found out just how fast she could run when they reached the hospital. Behind her, she vaguely registered the Ferrari roar off to deliver the two teens to their parents. Kumu was waiting for her by the doors.

“He’s okay,” Kumu soothed. “Slow down. He’ll be fine. Just a few bruises and a couple of cracked ribs.”

“Kumu,” Juliet warned, her voice shaking. “Don’t sugar coat this.”

“Fine,” Kumu shrugged, taking her arm, “there’s more than a few bruises. That’s all they are though. It looks worse than it is.”

“Now I’m really worried!”

Kumu stopped then and shook her. Actually shook her! It was enough of a shock in itself to make Juliet turn her full attention upon her. “He will be fine,” Kumu enunciated. “Nothing is damaged that time and care won’t fix. You were closer to death’s door with one bullet than he was tonight!”

Juliet nodded. “That damage took a fraction of a second though. This…”

“Will heal,” Kumu insisted.

Juliet opened her mouth to argue, but hesitated. It wasn’t the physical damage that worried her. Not now that she knew it was superficial. It would hurt, but it would heal. It was the things that might bring up along the way that she was worried about. Things Kumu knew nothing about, and it was not Juliet’s place to tell her. TC might know, and Magnum, but even then…

“Where is he?” Juliet asked, eventually, pushing all her worries to one side to make way for the need to see him, alive. They both had their demons. Hers was easier to satisfy right now than his.

“Come on,” Kumu nodded, leading the way.

TC rose as soon as the door opened. Not that he needed to: Juliet ran straight past both him and the chair. Kumu tugged on TC’s arm and tipped her head at the door. Unseen and unheard, they made their way out of the room.

“Oh, my love,” Juliet whispered, running gentle fingers through his hair.

Whether at her touch or voice, Rick stirred, opening his one unblackened eye with a wince and a frown. “Hey,” he breathed.

“Hey,” Jules murmured back.

“Guess now I know what Indy felt like,” Rick joked.

Juliet rolled her eyes. “You know I haven’t seen them.”

A corner of Rick’s mouth curled in a smile. “In one of the films, Indy gets beat up and his lady takes care of him afterwards. She tries to kiss him but everywhere hurts, so he tells her where it doesn’t, if that makes sense.”

Juliet smiled. “Just about. So where doesn’t it hurt?”

“See that’s where I think they got it wrong,” Rick grinned.

“Oh?” Juliet frowned. “How so?”

“I don’t give a damn if it hurts,” he replied. “Just kiss me.”

****

June and Kyle met Magnum at the door. Anthony and Maria stayed in the Ferrari.

“What’s going on?” June asked, frowning at her son and stepdaughter’s reticence.

“Uh,” Magnum floundered. He’d been trying to work out what to say since dropping Higgy off at the hospital. She was so much better than him at these things he hadn’t planned on saying anything at all before then. When the news about Rick came through, he had leapt at the chance to face the awkward conversation. He certainly couldn’t face Rick. Not if his interference was what put him in hospital in the first place. He took a breath. “This is probably gonna be awkward,” he sighed. “Look, I know you raised your kids as brother and sister, and that’s how you see them, but apparently that’s not how they see each other.”

“What do you mean?” Kyle frowned.

“And that’s why they ran away?” June retorted, her eyebrows shooting upwards. She looked past Magnum to the car. “You two, inside, now! You have school tomorrow. We’ll talk about this later. There will be ground rules!”

Kyle folded his arms and looked from his wife to his kids, to Magnum, then back to June. She sighed.

“They may be our kids, but they’re not brother and sister, and they’re teenagers,” she told him. “Teenagers who apparently take after their parents!”

The penny dropped when she kissed his cheek. “Oh,” said Kyle, blankly watching his daughter and stepson approach. When Anthony drew near, Kyle turned a still slightly stunned expression on him. “Keeping my daughter out past curfew on your first date is not a great start, Tony.”

****

I don’t know if I can do this. I know I’m driving to the hospital, but I’m on autopilot. Just because the Ferrari is going there, doesn’t mean I’m gonna have the guts to go inside!

This is my fault: it has to be. One of my best friends – my brother – is lying in a hospital bed, maybe fighting for his life, I don’t know, and it’s my fault. I hoped that I could keep them safe by keeping them out of it; that by taking on the collective myself, I would be the only one they’d come for. Guess I was wrong about that. I was wrong and Rick is paying for it. And I know that means Higgy’s paying for it too. They all are, I guess.

What if he dies?

What if I never get the chance to make things right with him?

I’d never forgive myself.

Neither would Higgins.

Please let him be alright. God, if you’re listening, I could really use a favour right about now.

****

TC had been on the lookout for the Ferrari for the past hour. When he finally spotted it pull up in a parking spot from the window of the ward, he turned and headed for the entrance. He expected to meet Thomas halfway, or even in the entrance itself, trying to find out where to go next. Instead, there was no one there. With midnight approaching, the lobby was all but abandoned, with one receptionist reading a book behind her desk and Halloween decorations bobbing gently in the breeze from the doors.

Frowning, TC stalked out and round to where he had seen the unmistakeable car pull up. It was there. Thomas was still inside. His eyes were closed, and TC recognised a look he had seen on only rare occasions. Quietly, picking his way through the nigh deserted parking lot like a penitent through the pews of a cathedral, TC approached the car.

“He’s okay, Tommy,” he murmured, resting a hand on the top of the car door. “He’ll be okay.”

Thomas opened his eyes then and looked up at his friend. “I gotta tell you something. And you’re not gonna like it.”

****

 Kumu was dozing in a chair outside the little room when the rattle of wheels woke her. She saw the hospital bed disappear past her with Rick on it. Juliet hung back in the doorway.

“What’s happening? Is he alright?” Kumu cried, hurrying over to Juliet’s side.

This time, it was Juliet’s turn to sooth Kumu. “Just a CAT scan. It’s standard practice with head injuries. He should have been before now, but apparently Halloween brings out the crazy in some people, especially with a full moon, and they’ve been busy.”

“Ah,” Kumu sighed, relief flooding through her. “Of course.”

“Where’s TC?” Higgy asked, looking round.

“Hmm?” Kumu looked up. “Oh! I don’t know. He was here before, but…”

The doors to the ward opened and TC led Magnum through. “Look who I found,” he grinned. Then he caught sight of the empty room. “Where’s our boy?”

“Having his head examined,” smiled Higgy, trying to look less worried than she felt. What if the scan showed up something they hadn’t seen? A bleed on the brain? An aneurysm ready to pop? A tumour? She swallowed down the all-consuming terror that was beginning to rear its ugly head again.

“’Bout time too,” chuckled TC. “They say how long they’re gonna be?”

Juliet shook her head. “Only that they shouldn’t be long.”

TC nodded. “Tommy here has something to share. Something we all oughta hear.”

“When you say all…” Juliet frowned.

“We can tell Rick and Shammy later,” Magnum shrugged, then paused. “Where is Shammy? I thought he was with you?”

“He went with Katsumoto to look at mugshots,” Kumu supplied. “He thinks he might have seen some of them running away.”

“What about Katsumoto?” Higgins asked, watching her partner. “Are we telling him whatever it is?”

“Oh, he already knows,” replied TC, folding his arms. “It’s just the rest of us Tommy’s been keeping in the dark.”

Higgins’ face hardened. She held open the door to the empty hospital room and waved the others inside. “Whatever it is, I want to hear all of it, and I want to hear it now!”

****

Rick woke up in Juliet’s bed at Robin’s Nest. It had been two days. Two days of boredom and hospital food. When they finally allowed him to leave, it was on the condition that he had someone around constantly. At least until the doc cleared him. That had meant Robin’s Nest. Waking up there was still a rarity. For the most part they had spent their nights in his apartment. For all that there were neighbours on all sides, and comparatively thin walls, it still felt more private than here. Perhaps that was because he didn’t risk bumping into Thomas at breakfast!

How many of them would be there at breakfast today?

Juliet stirred in her sleep, an arm’s length away on the other side of the bed. That had been another reason, she had claimed: the bed in his apartment was so small that she would have been too close to him however they slept. Rick didn’t dare point out that she could sleep in an entirely separate bed. He knew there was no way he would get her to leave his side. Especially not at night time.

Rick tried to sit up and winced. He eased himself back down again. Of course, bumping into people at breakfast was less of a problem when you couldn’t even get out of bed! He grabbed his phone and looked at the time. It was later than either he or Juliet usually awoke. He looked over at her again. This time her eyes were opening.

“Morning, my love,” Jules yawned. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got used as a punching bag several times over,” Rick quipped, rolling his eyes. “Which is funny, ‘cause that’s pretty much what happened!”

“What do you need?” Jules murmured, reaching out to run her fingers through his hair.

“Maybe, you should let TC or Tommy…”

“Rick, I’m not going anywhere,” Juliet cut in. “Let me help. You looked after me after that farmhouse blew up. Let me look after you now.”

Words ran through Rick’s head. Words he had dreamt about saying to her even before she turned up at his bar in that dress. Those words went both ways. He hated being weak. He hated feeling helpless: who didn’t? But if he couldn’t let her in now, how could he promise to do the same for her later? Rick’s eyes turned back to her and saw Juliet watching him as if she could read his mind. Could she?

“I’m here, Rick,” she whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Just help me sit up,” he relented. “Once I’m on my feet, we’ll see.”

****

TC was making pancakes when Rick and Juliet reached the kitchen. If he’d been able to move quickly enough, Rick would have done a double take. As it was, he just half frowned, half smiled in his friend’s direction.

“What are you doing here?” Rick asked, easing himself onto one of the stools around the kitchen island.

TC grinned. “We all got some talking to do,” he replied. “The kind that goes better with food. Kumu’s gone to find Tommy. Gordy should be here any minute. Shammy’s on his way in right now.”

Rick’s eyebrows went up. This sounded like an intervention, but for whom?

The door opened and Kumu entered, leading what looked like a miniature procession. Shammy wheeled himself in with a grin on his face that made Rick look suspiciously at the door. Thomas was next, but backwards, hands up in a placating gesture at the two growling dogs that followed. Behind him, Rick heard Juliet chuckle.

“Good boys, come here,” she cooed, deserting Rick for her beloved dogs. Zeus and Apollo stopped their growling and made a beeline for their mistress. “Well done, boys. Well done.”

Magnum spun on his heel to face the group. Immediately, his eyes fell on Rick, taking in his yellowing bruises and stiff carriage that betrayed the hidden support for his ribs. It became abundantly clear to Rick then that he hadn’t just missed his friend’s visits in hospital: there hadn’t been any. This was the first time Thomas had seen him since Halloween.

“Tommy,” he said, carefully, watching his friend like he might watch a suspect in one of Tommy’s own cases.

Thomas took a breath before answering. “Rick.”

“Sit down,” Kumu ordered. Magnum, Zeus and Apollo all found a place to sit.

“Pancakes are ready,” added TC, transferring a plate to the island. There were plates and cutlery, and a variety of other breakfast accoutrements, all sitting ready for them. Kumu and TC had clearly planned this out. “Coffee’s ready too. Anyone?”

Five hands and one pair of ears went up. Juliet chuckled and scratched Zeus behind the ears. “Not for you, silly,” she laughed.

As those in need of sustenance proceeded to fill their plates with pancakes or cereal, TC passed around the coffees. When he finally sat down it was at the end of the island, facing Magnum.

“While you were off gettin’ your brain scanned,” TC began, “Tommy here let us in on somethin’ of a secret he’s been keepin’. Somethin’ we agreed we all needed to be in on.”

“Is this the big meeting I missed at the hospital on Sunday night?” Shammy asked, lowering his mug of coffee.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Gordy,” Magnum tried.

“He can catch up,” TC decided. “Yeah, Shammy, this is about that.”

“What’s goin’ on here?” Rick asked, looking from TC to Thomas and back.

The door opened again, and Katsumoto walked in. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing, Gordon,” replied Juliet, glaring at Thomas. “Magnum was just going to tell everyone what he told us on Sunday night.”

Magnum stared at the centre of the kitchen island. Even it felt as if it was staring back at him expectantly! He closed his eyes and took a breath. “I’ve been investigating the collective,” he said, the words tumbling out one after the other like apples from an overfilled barrel. “I think they might have been behind what happened at La Mariana.”

Ah. That was it. Rick let his eyes drop to the remnants of breakfast before him. “I thought that was payback for the drug dealer we caught.”

“Turns out they may be the same,” sighed Katsumoto, walking over to the group, a mug of coffee now in his hands. “That new player in town that I warned you about? Seems like they turned up about the same time The Collective went underground.”

“So, what?” Rick frowned. “Blowing stuff up was too hard so they decided to take over the local narcotics business instead? What’s their plan? Bulk buy drugs then sell them at a discount? Undercut the local players?”

“Actually, two of the suspected “players” were recently found with their throats slit,” Katsumoto supplied. “We’re still trying to locate some of the others. It may be The Collective have got to them, or they may have just got wind of what’s happened to their competitors and gone to ground.”

“Guess I got off lightly then!” Rick joked, but he felt Juliet’s hand tighten on his arm.

“Don’t, man,” murmured Thomas, looking directly at him for the first time since he walked in. “If anything happened to you… to any of you because of my interference with these guys…”

“The dude was dealing drugs behind my bar,” snapped Rick. He gestured at himself and TC. “Our bar! There’s no way I’m letting him do that!”

“Nevertheless,” murmured Juliet, “it does rather raise the stakes here. Do we know if it was just a coincidence that the dealer picked La Mariana?”

“He’s not talking,” replied Katsumoto with a shake of his head. “New dealers have been popping up all over town according to our CIs, but always out of sight of the cameras.”

“So, it might be nothing to do with Magnum’s inquiries?” Juliet confirmed.

Katsumoto just shrugged.

“Either way, we gotta decide where we go from here,” announced TC. “Tommy’s gonna keep investigating with or without our help, no matter what we say, so I say the more the merrier.”

“I’m in,” nodded Rick.

“You can barely walk, love,” Juliet chided.

“He’s doin’ better than me then!” Shammy laughed. “I’m in, Magnum.”

“I’m in,” nodded Kumu.

“I’m in too, and I think you should let Five-O know your plans,” added Katsumoto. “HPD will help where it can, but they’ve got more firepower and fancier toys.”

“Yeah, but they’ll also want to take over,” sighed Magnum, shaking his head. “Look what happened last time.”

“What makes you so sure you can do better, Magnum?” Juliet snapped. “This isn’t some missing cat or cheating husband!”

“Jules,” murmured Rick, slipping his hand into hers. “Come on: you know he’s right!”

“Name one thing he’s got that Five-O hasn’t,” she retorted. She knew she was being unreasonable, but there were some things she was not yet willing to risk.

“You,” he smiled.

Juliet knew she had lost then. There was no argument she could concoct that would make it past that smile.

“I got a question,” said Shammy, breaking the uneasy silence that had settled on the room. “What about your buddy Jin?”

“Well, I’d hardly say buddy,” Thomas shrugged.

“He’s not exactly the first person that springs to mind when the word covert is mentioned!” TC added.

“He’s a liability!” Juliet scoffed.

“He could come in handy,” shrugged Katsumoto. “He has connections.”

“I thought I was the connections guy!” Rick protested.

“He has different connections,” said Katsumoto, shrugging again. “He’s also a good con artist, for all his bluster.”

“Yeah, I gotta agree with that,” nodded TC.

“Yeah, but he can’t protect himself,” Magnum pointed out. “If they can do that to Rick…”

“He’s wily though, and fast,” countered Rick. “He might have gotten away.”

“Or he might have ended up in a ditch with a bullet in his back!” Thomas pointed out. “And you know as soon as he finds out, he’ll want to be involved!”

“Okay, so we don’t tell him yet,” offered Katsumoto. “If we have something that needs his skills, then we involve him, but not before.”

“Speaking of having things,” Shammy enquired. “What exactly do we have on these guys anyway?”

Both Katsumoto and Magnum shook their heads.

“Not a lot,” sighed the latter.

“Nothing concrete,” added the former. “We have some items that can be traced back to shell corporations or sites on the dark web, but since the farmhouse incident they’ve redoubled their efforts to cover their tracks. Our cyber experts can’t even pin down what country they’re in right now!”

“You mean these bad guys we’re after might not even be in Hawaii?” Kumu cut in, aghast.

“They might, they might not,” shrugged the cop. “We have no evidence either way. We can’t afford to follow our gut like Magnum can.”

“Which is why you need me, and my gut, to help track them down,” nodded Magnum. “And which is why it would really help, Higgy, if you were on board here.”

Higgins looked from the pleading eyes of her partner to those of her lover, shining with absolute trust and belief in her. One would have been enough to drag her into this. Both together were irresistible.

“Fine,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’m in.”

~Fin~

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