Authors:
Author’s Note: this story takes place the day after the episode “Cry, Lie” and assumes that the reader is familiar with that episode. I also want to thank Lady Oscar, who is very familiar with the Honolulu Zoo, for letting me pick her brain about the smallest of details (in addition to some bigger ones as well). Her knowledge was invaluable in the writing of this story.

Edited by: Trish


“And tomorrow we’ll go down to the zoo.”
 - Chin Ho Kelly in “Cry, Lie.”

Being a cop for twenty-two years, Chin Ho Kelly had seen more than his fair share of paperwork but perhaps for the first time in those many years Chin was happy to be filling it out, even on a beautiful Saturday like today. Just last night Chin was looking at the very real possibility of losing his job and going to jail. The frame had been good; Chin wasn’t sure how Steve got Eddie Calhao to confess and Steve was being unusually reticent but Chin was grateful to be back in the office.

Normally, the Five-O detectives didn’t come in on Saturday unless they were in the midst of an active investigation. But since the unit had spent the last week working around the clock to clear Chin’s name they had let all the non-essential stuff slide. So all four detectives had come in early to play catch up and welcome Chin back into their fold.

As Chin signed the last sheet of paper he heard his co-workers joking with one another. Danny Williams was holding a large pile paperwork and it looked like he had been headed toward Steve’s office but Kono Kalakaua was blocking his way.

“What’s da hurry?” the large Hawaiian asked.

“I’ve got to pick up my girl,” Danny answered.

“Who is this new wahine?”

“You’ll find out.”

“Come on, Romeo, give.”

Danny paused for a moment before giving in. “Jane Michaels.”

“Dat rich wahine you play tennis with?”

“Hey, she’s got a lot more going for her than money.”

“Yeah, her good looks and dat hair...”

“Try a great personality and kind heart. She can’t help that she was born rich and besides she puts the money to good use with the Junior Blind.”

“So she’s a do-gooder.”

“Kono,” Danny growled.

Kono laughed. “Bruddah, you got it bad.”

Chin privately chuckled as Danny sought for a way to change the subject. Noticing that Chin was watching, Danny came over and sat on the edge Chin’s desk. “What are you doing once we’re free?”

“Taking my kids to the zoo.”

Kono eyes grew wide. “All eight?”

“Yes.”

“You’re brave,” Danny stated. “I don’t know if watching a bunch monkeys play would count as a day off in my book.”

“Whose da monkeys? Da animals or da kids?” Kono joked.

“Very funny,” Chin replied. “If you keep this up I will tell Lin that the two of you volunteered to take the kids while we go out.”

That quieted the two detectives but not before their conversation had attracted the attention of the fourth member, and head, of their unit. Steve McGarrett was standing next to Jenny’s desk with his hands on his hips and an amused look on his face. “I can see that you all are working hard out here.”

Danny slid off the edge of Chin’s desk and slammed the large pile of paper down in front of his boss. “Done, Steve.”

Steve raised an eyebrow as he looked suspiciously at his second-in-command. “You seem to be a hurry to leave.”

“The sun is shining and the surf looks great. Why shouldn’t I be eager for an afternoon off?”

“Who’s the girl?”

Kono laughed. “Steve’s got ya number, Danny.”

“Just someone I met playing tennis,” Danny explained. “I have reservations at nice place on the beach for one.”

Steve shook his head. “Why am I not reassured?”

“No worries,” Danny assured his boss. “It’s Chin who’s crazy. He’s taking all eight kids to the zoo.”

Steve looked over at Chin who shrugged and said, “I promised Tilda we’d go.”

After glancing nervously at his watch, Danny looked up at Steve hopefully. “Can we leave now?”

“I don’t know, Danno,” Steve stalled. “I can think of a couple more things…”

“Steve!”

“Go.” Steve said with a wave of his hand.

Without needing anymore permission, the young detective raced from the room and those left behind chuckled at Danny’s exuberance. Chin looked down at his desk and noticed a set of keys that weren’t his. He picked them up and asked, “I wonder how long it’ll take before Danny realizes he doesn’t have his keys?”

*~*~*

Closing the door behind him, Kono let out a contented sigh of relief as he plopped down on a couch. He was tired, very tired. The long hours of the past week added to his inability to sleep during the few spare moments he had meant that Kono had been running on empty for the past few days. The fact that some crooks would try and frame his friend had simply enraged the Hawaiian and left him unable to calm his racing mind enough to sleep.

For if Chin Ho Kelly, the most honorable kind-hearted man that Kono had the privilege of calling friend, could be accused of being a crooked cop then anyone could.

Kono told himself that it was over. Forget the fact that they had almost lost. Forget that he and Steve had almost come to blows after exchanging harsh words, forget that they played loose with the law to bring Calhao to justice.

But how could Kono ever forget? The events of the past week would be engrained in his memory forever.

Closing his eyes, Kono leaned into the couch cushions and tried to think of something else and his thoughts landed on his friend and co-worker Danny Williams. A grin spread across Kono’s face as he remembered how the red-raced detective had returned to the office to look for his misplaced car keys. While chuckling at his friend’s embarrassment, Kono was also amazed that Danny had the much energy left in him. Danny must really like that wahine he was meeting for lunch.

To tell the truth, Kono thought Danny was pupule for going out on a date and Chin too for taking his kids to the zoo! But then again Chin was pupule for having eight kids. A good long nap, that’s what any sane person would want to do after a busy week.

Just as Kono decided that he should get up and change out of his work clothes so he could take his nap, his exhausted body succumbed to the temptations of his comfy couch as the blissful state of sleep claimed him.

*~*~*


Chin returned to a noisy house. He had barely taken two steps into the living room when Thomas and Gabriel, aged eight and ten, raced toward him talking exciting about which animals they were going to see first. Amy, age six, and Maria, age eleven, waved at their father and then turned their attention back to the television. Chin could hear the sound of the record player blaring from another room where fifteen year old Alia was listening to her new album. As Chin moved into the kitchen, he walked past a firmly closed door which told him that his oldest son, also fifteen, was on the phone. In the kitchen, three year old Tilda called his name in-between bits of her lunch as the thirteen year old Susie banged together the dishes she was washing. In the middle of it all was the wonderful woman that Chin had the privilege of calling wife, who was calmly feeding Tilda while directing Susie with the dishes and rebuking the young boys for running in her kitchen.

There was no doubt about it; Lin Kelly was the master of the Kelly household.

Leaning over, Chin gave Lin a peck on the check which his wife returned and then gave Tilda her last mouthful of lunch. Once freed from her highchair, Tilda hugged her Daddy and chattered excitingly about the promised trip to the zoo.

Looking at his wife, the two of them came to an unspoken agreement. Lin would round up the younger Kelly children while Chin got the more difficult task of convincing the teenagers to get ready.

Susie was easy as she already had her shoes on and seemed to be in a pleasant enough mood even though it had been her turn to wash the dishes. Susie was not the teenager that Chin was worried about. Nor, thankfully, was Alia much of a problem. While she didn’t look pleased at the idea of spending the day surrounded by her younger siblings, she had only rolled her eyes when Chin told her to turn off the music and get ready. Rolling eyes Chin could deal with; he had plenty of experience of that with his eldest child.

Nine months older than Alia, Tim was the epitome of a moody teenager who was starting to chafe against the perceived constraints placed upon him by his parents. Chin shook his head as he thought about what he was going to do with his oldest. Maybe he was being too easy on the boy by allowing him to spend long hours on the phone with his friends but Chin wanted Tim to grew into his own man. As a result, Chin hadn’t placed more restrictions on Tim as he started to show signs of wanting independence even though it inevitably created conflict in the Kelly household.

Chin braced himself for another round of that conflict as he walked over to Tim’s closed bedroom door and knocked. “Tim, are you ready?”

Chin heard a few murmured words and the hanging up of a phone and then the sound of feet stomping over to the door before it opened. Tim was ready but his face was surly as he said, “I don’t understand why I have to go.”

“Tim, we already discussed this. We’re going to spend some time together as a family.”

“Why, just so you can make up for all the times you’re never home?”

The force in Tim’s words hit Chin hard. He knew that his job was demanding and took away from his family but it hurt that Tim couldn’t see that he did for him, for all of them. “You’re coming. That’s my final word.”

Tim’s eyes darkened but the teenager knew that he wasn’t going to win this battle. “I’m ready.”

“Go help your mother with your brothers.”

As Tim stormed off, Chin started to think of a few crooks that were easier to handle than his oldest son. But what could he do? Tim was a teenager and conceived that he knew everything better than his parents. Chin told himself that it was a phase that his son would grow out of but it didn’t make it any easier on him or Lin.

By the time Chin managed to sneak away and change out of his work clothes, Lin had gotten the rest of the children ready and as a family they piled into their van and drove to the Honolulu Zoo.

Once at the zoo it took Chin, Lin and the three teenagers working together to get everyone out of the van and through the ticket line in one piece. However, after all the kids were inside the anticipation that was making them difficult to handle turned into pure joy at the sight of flamingos and monkeys and an elephant! Sure Tim was still surly and Alia was paying more attention to the few teenage boys walking around but Amy’s laughter and Maria’s and Gabriel’s explanations of things he learned about the different animals from school was making the trip the fun family outing that Chin was hoping that it would be.

“I can’t see!” Tilda called out when they reached another exhibit. Reaching down, Chin picked up his youngest and directed her attention to a couple of tortoises sleeping in the grass.

Several minutes passed and Thomas was beginning to get restless. “I want to see the snakes!”

Figuring it wasn’t it wasn’t worth a public scene, Chin and Lin gathered up the rest of their children and made their way towards the Reptile House.

Ushering the children inside the Reptile House they discovered that there was only one snake, a Burmese python, but the younger kids loved seeing it along several other frogs and lizards. Amy in her excitement to look into another glass window accidently bumped into another girl her age.

“Watch it,” snapped an older woman as she laid a protective hand on what Chin assumed was her granddaughter.


“S...sorry,” Amy mumbled.

The woman looked down her nose at Amy who was so disturbed by the woman’s rudeness that she backed away and hid behind Chin’s legs. The woman glare didn’t lessen once Amy had backed off and instead traveled up to the face of her father. Recognition dawned on her and the woman scowled at Chin and she spat, “Humph. I shouldn’t have expected any better from the daughter of a crooked cop.”

Chin forced a wave of anger down as the woman grabbed her granddaughter and moved to the other side of the room. He shouldn’t let the woman’s words bother him. He told himself that the truth wouldn’t come out until the evening paper but it didn’t help. People would remember the accusations but not the acquittal. He thought this whole mess over. Was too much to ask when it would all end?

Lin came over and wrapped one arm around her now trembling daughter and placed a comforting hand on her husband’s shoulder and whispered, “It doesn’t matter. Don’t let what other people say bother you.”

“It’s okay,” Chin said and let his wife take charge of Amy.

But Chin wasn’t okay, not if he was being honest with himself. The accusations hurt him more than he let on, more then he dared let Steve or even his wife know.

Tilda let out a gasp in his arms as the lizard she was looking at moved, obvious to the goings on around her. Chin smiled at his daughter. In her eyes he was not judged based on whether he was a great detective or a crooked cop; in Tilda’s eyes he was just Daddy and she loved him unconditionally for that. Lin was right, his family accepted and loved him, let the world think what they will.

Now if only Chin could convince his heart what his head already knew.

Lost in his thoughts, Chin missed a group of four men walk into the building and spread out so that they stood in front of the exits. They weren’t looking at the animals but at the people as if sizing them up for something. Even the signals they exchanged went unnoticed until the man in the middle of the room brought out a gun and fired two shots into the ceiling.

The crowd screamed and starting to push towards the doors but the other men were also armed and refused to let anyone out. Chin yelled at his family to freeze and shoved Tilda into Tim’s arms. “Hold her.”

Tim’s eyes grew wide and he opened his mouth to say something but the detective didn’t have time to answer his son’s questions. He keep a careful eye on the gunmen to make sure his actions were hidden from view as he took out his .38 from a hidden holster and grabbed some bullets. However, he was only able to load a single bullet into the chamber before one of the gunmen began to order the crowd to sit with their backs against the wall. Chin had to rush to hide the gun to keep the gunmen from noticing it while making sure his family followed the lead gunman’s orders.

Knowing they had to play along for now and wait for an opening, Chin was relieved to see his family sitting down. He was closest to the middle of the room, with the grandmother and her granddaughter seated on his right, next to a couple with their young son. His daughter Tilda sat beside him with her arms tightly wrapped around his torso, looking like she was going to burst into tears at any moment. Chin looked across her at Tim, whose eyes burned with anger, looking like he was just waiting for an opportunity to fight back. He knew he would have to keep a close eye on his son. He glanced across the row of his daughters. Maria, beside Tim, was sitting with her knees brought up underneath her chin, her face clearly showing her fear, while Susie’s face was pale but determined. Amy was clearly too afraid to speak and had silent tears running down her cheeks. He was thankful that she was next to Lin, who had one arm wrapped around her daughter. To anyone but Chin, Lin’s face would have given no hint as to her emotions, but after seventeen years of marriage the two of them knew each other better than they knew themselves. Lin had gone beyond mad. In this mood she was cold, calculating, and would do whatever was necessary to save her children. On Lin’s other side sat Thomas and Gabriel, too shocked to move or do anything but stare, and Alia, closest to the door, looking both mad and frightened, helping Lin keep a close eye on her younger brothers.

Fifteen hostages, ten of them children, eight of those children were his own.

Even though Chin was a cop he couldn’t stop being a father as he worried over how to keep all his family safe. They didn’t deserve this, to see the dark underside of Hawaii that he dealt with everyday. He wanted to jump up and fight those who dared to threaten the ones he loved.

But Chin didn’t because even though he was a father he couldn’t stop being a cop and the cop in him knew what he wanted to do would only get his family killed. It was with that knowledge in mind that he broke his gaze away from his family and studied the situation with a detective’s eye.

There were four gunmen and, aside from barking out orders, they had given the hostages no clue as to who they were or what they wanted. However, from watching them the detective could make a few professional observations: they were young, Caucasian, college-aged, and from their clothes Chin could tell that had access to some wealth. They made no attempts to hide their appearance and they seemed to defer to the tall black haired man who stood only a few paces away from Chin.

A bunch of rich college radicals with a cause was Chin’s educated guess.

The good news was that meant that these weren’t hardened criminals but radicals with a cause could be just as if not more dangerous, especially if they were willing to die for that cause.

The earlier gunshots meant that those on the outside knew what was going on inside the Reptile House and it would only be a matter of time before Five-O and HPD would arrive. The gunmen were clearly waiting for the cops to show up and when they did Chin knew they would make their move.

The odds were stacked against all of his family making it out unharmed but Chin had his gun and even though it was loaded with only one bullet, he would not let these men hurt any of his children, not without a fight. He would die to keep them safe.

Chin just hoped that it would be enough.

*~*~*

The piles of paperwork forgotten, Steve leaned back in the chair and engaged in the one indulgence he granted himself in the office: playing his guitar. After a hectic week, Steve found comfort in his music and in the fact that a good detective and better man could enjoy time-off with his family without the threat of disgrace hanging over his head. Plus, Five-O was a better unit with Chin Ho Kelly in it and Chin wasn’t going anywhere soon.

Steve switched to another chord and let a smile spread across his face; he loved to play and didn’t get the opportunity nearly enough. However, the gentle relaxation of the moment was soon broken by harsh ringing of the telephone. “McGarrett.”

As Steve listened to the report on the other end his face hardened and worry flickered in his eyes. But always the professional, Steve’s voice was steady as he ordered, “Contact the rest of my team and have them meet me there.”


*~*~*


As Danny looked across the table at his date he wondered what he had ever done to deserve her. Jane was sweet, funny, and had a heart of gold. Kono had teased him about her money and no one was more shocked them him to find that it really hadn’t affected their relationship.

Jane was beautiful both in appearance and heart and Danny knew that this was a woman he wanted to have a relationship with. So after they had both ordered their meals, Danny looked into Jane’s eyes and asked, “What would you like to do? The day is yours.”

Jane blushed. “Danny, you’re too sweet.”

Danny smiled as he considered a couple of romantic possibilities to suggest but his smile was quickly wiped from his face when he noticed a HPD officer approach his table.

One day! Was it too much to ask to have one day without having to worry about whatever the latest crisis happened to be? If this was for anything less than Iolani Palace burning down he was going not going to mince words the next time he spoke to Steve.

Before Danny could ask what the problem was, the officer rapidly stated, “There’s a situation at the zoo. Some nut jobs took a roomful of visitors hostage. Including a bunch of kids.”

Danny’s bad mood instantly disappeared and was replaced with worry as the worst case scenario immediately leapt into his mind. Chin!

Looking back at Jane, Danny wished that he could stay but even if Chin and his family were safe there was no choice. Danny knew where his duty was.

“Sorry,” Danny said while opening his wallet to lay down some bills for the food and the taxi.

Jane put her hand firmly over his wallet. “Don’t worry about it.” Then leaning in she gave him a slight peck on the check and whispered as she pulled back. “Be safe.”