McGarrett's Daughter

Chapter 19

Amelia must have dozed off because she was jerked awake by the sound of people talking.

". . . I think Amelia went over the cliff."

Amelia froze. It sounded like Steve but she wasn't sure. If she was wrong she risked Siham finding her. She looked at the sky. The sun had been directly overhead when she left and now it was much lower. A lot of time had passed.

"Steve," she choked out, her throat dry. She coughed, trying to clear it up. "Help!" She called, louder this time.

"Amelia, thank God," he said. "She's over here!" He called as loud as he could before continuing. "Hey, I'm gonna get you up, alright? Are you ok?"

She coughed again and moved a few feet away from the edge of the cliff so that she could see the ledge above. Steve was leaning over it, clearly worried.

"I'm fine," she said. "I. . . I'm ok. The guys who attacked me-"

"You don't have to worry about them. I promise."

"They think I'm dead." Amelia felt her heart drop. If she hadn't caught those roots, she would've been. As she had the thought, she felt a burst of pain through her arm.

"That's what they said."

"They told you I was dead?"

"Pretty much. Look, I'm going to come down there, all right? Then we're going to get you up."

"Yeah."

"Hey. You're going to be fine."

"I'm sorry for running off."

Steve frowned at her. "Hey, that is the least of my concerns right now. You shouldn't be worried about it either, alright?"

Amelia could hear the flurry of activity on the ledge and knew they were working to get her up.

"If I didn't run off this wouldn't of happened."

Steve shook his head. "No. If you hadn't of run off they might've tried to grab you at a different time and they might've been successful, ok? But right now, you're gonna be ok."

She nodded but didn't reply. Instead, she focused on evening out her breathing. It was almost over.

There was movement above her and Steve disappeared from view. Moments later a rope was tossed down that fell past her ledge. Then Steve appeared, wearing a harness. He gripped the rope and jumped off, repelling down the side until he reached her.

Once he was on the ledge she darted forward and wrapped her good arm around him. He stepped back in surprise before hugging her tightly. When she pulled away, he noticed her arm.

"Let me see," he said quietly and she held it out, ignoring the pain when he gently touched it.

He inspected it carefully and sighed.

"It's broken. But if that's the worst of it you're in good shape. Anything else I should know about?"

"Just some bruises and scratches. I'm okay."

Steve nodded and helped her put on the harness. He then attached the rope and tugged on it once. Then Amelia was lifted upwards until she was back on solid ground.

The first person to embrace her was Danny. He didn't notice her broken arm but he did notice her hiss of pain when he hugged her and immediately pulled back. After assessing her arm, he said, "I hope you don't make this a regular occurrence."

Amelia laughed dryly. "You've met my father. No promises."

Danny sighed heavily and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, careful of the injured arm. He turned her towards the cliff where Steve was being pulled up.