Kris and Steve spend a few hours with Duke and the chief of police arranging their father's funeral for the next morning. They decide to bury him at punchbowl, as he was a veteran, and many people on the island considered him a hero for being such a great cop. Steve and Kris ultimately decide that they will put up a plaque for him at the family mausoleum next to his wife and parents, who all have a plaque there too. Oddly enough, the only McGarrett body buried there is of Jean, the widowed wife of Ensign Steven McGarrett, who died in the Pearl Harbour attacks. Once the meeting is over and everything is set in stone (thankfully HPD was already mostly done with their funeral plans for their father, because they knew that Steve and Kris were overseas at the time of his death), Steve and Kris head back to their hotel to finally get out of their uniforms and relax for the night. They end up grabbing a bite to eat again at the restaurant and have a few beers to unwind before heading back to their room for the night. During dinner, Steve steps out to make a phone call to Mary to inform her of their father's death, and to ask her to come to the funeral. Mary, who essentially grew up without any parents (she was only ten when their mom died and their father sent them away), said she would think about it, and then hung up.
The next morning, Kris find herself reluctant to get out of her bed after a night of minimal sleep. Her mind was racing all night, just trying not to think about her father's funeral in a few hours, and how miserable it truly is to bury both of your parents before the age of fourty. Neither of her parents will ever be able to be grandparents if Kris or her siblings have any kids down the road, and they will never get to see how their kids have grown up in so many ways. Deep down, it breaks Kris' heart to think about, but she knows that it is something that is completely out of her control. All she can do now is take care of her siblings and make sure that they keep the memory of their parents alive and (hopefully) make them proud.
Kris continues to lie in bed for the next little while, trying to muster up all the power and courage in her to get up while Steve goes out for a run to try and clear his mind. Kris would love to go with him, but she can't risk popping her stitches quite yet. Half an hour into Steve's run, Kris hauls her ass out of bed and trudges into the bathroom to freshen up a little bit and make herself look presentable for the funeral today. After washing her face, Kris looks at herself in the mirror for the first time in a while. Her brown hair that was recently cut (by Steve during a little bit of off time on base) into a choppy bob to stay out of her face during missions, and be as low maintenance as possible, is now a mess from her restless (lack of) sleep. She notices a few more wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes- something that comes with aging and stress, she assumes. But her eyes... oh boy her eyes. Specifically, the bags under her sad, blue eyes that prove she hasn't slept in a while look rather daunting. If she had any makeup right now, she sure as hell would be using it to make her look like she was a living human being and not an exhausted person who probably hasn't had a good night's sleep in the last seventeen years of her life. Taking off her pyjama shirt, she sighs and takes a closer look at the rest of her body. Her chest is now littered with black and blue bruises from the bullets she took in her vest yesterday- she doesn't dare to touch them because she knows that it will hurt like a bitch. Kris sighs and looks at her left shoulder, which is still dressed in a white bandage that's probably due for a change. She carefully takes off the dressing and winces as she touches the tender skin around her bullet wound. From there, she grabs some saline, a new dressing and some medical tape from her medkit, then applies a new dressing, thinking about how this wound is going to lead to yet another scar on her body. Throughout her career in the Navy and Military, Kris' body has slowly begun to be covered in scars from bullet wounds, shrapnel, cuts, broken bones and the occasional surgery. It's just one of the joys of being on the front lines with the men and going out on dangerous missions all the time; Steve has plenty of scars and aches too from it. One thing that Kris loves about her body though, is her tattoos. Each upper arm has a tattoo, and she loves to look at them whenever she gets the chance. Her left arm has a beautiful custom Navy piece that she got with Steve when they graduated from the academy, and her right arm has a black and white mandala with some thick black stripes near her elbow. Kris then gets changed into a new pair of underwear and a sports bra, and washes her face, hoping it makes her look and feel less tired.
A knock on the bathroom door snaps Kris out of her thoughts. It's Steve, and he's back from his run, by the sound of it. "Hey, if you're done lookin' at yourself in the mirror, I brought some coffee for us. And maybe some cocoa puffs from the Liliha Bakery." Steve says loudly, which makes' Kris smile. She dries off her face and opens the door, now poking her head out of it. "Cocoa puffs? Gee, I hope you bought something for yourself, because if you think you're getting any of them, you're dead wrong. Gimme a sec." Kris grins, wiggling her eyebrows at Steve, who is putting the coffees down on the table, now chuckling at his twin who seriously hasn't changed at all since they were kids.
Kris throws her pyjama shorts back on and exits the bathroom, making a beeline for the coffee and cocoa puffs. Steve hands her a coffee, and then opens up the bag of cocoa puffs. Before Steve can even think about grabbing a cocoa puff for himself, Kris' hand is already on one, apparently quite eager to eat it. Steve can't help but laugh at his sister's antics; this was something she has done since they were little kids... she loves the cocoa puffs from Liliha, and would fight tooth and nail for one. Every Sunday, their mom would get up early and grab fresh cocoa puffs for the entire family to have, and they would usually sit outside and have them for breakfast as a family. From there, Steve and Kris eat their breakfast in silence, not really wanting to discuss what is going to be happening today, because frankly, it's something that they both don't want to think about. Once they're all finished, Steve heads into the bathroom to take a quick shower after his run, and then they both put their dress uniforms once again.
The funeral is a sombre affair. Many HPD officers come up to Steve and Kris and offer their condolences, and Steve and Kris answer them on autopilot, thanking them. Before their father's casket is lowered into the ground, Kris is handed the flag that was rested on top of it, which made her breath catch in her throat. Steve put a hand on her back in confidence and placed another on the flag as they said one last goodbye to their father. Kris found herself on autopilot for the entirety of the service, as it was something that she didn't really want to remember or experience ever again. Losing one parent was hard enough, but now that both were gone, and her father was murdered because of something that her and Steve were working on was something that was simply incomprehensible. The 'what if we hadn't taken on the mission of tracking down the Hesse brothers' made Kris feel sick to her stomach to think about- because if they hadn't, John McGarrett would still be alive today, and his children wouldn't be orphans.
When Kris comes back to reality, her and Steve are the only ones left at the cemetery. Kris sighs and crosses herself, whispering a quiet goodbye to her father, and then begins to walk away. She pats Steve on the back, and together they head back to the SUV, and drive back to the hotel in silence. They can mourn for their father once they catch Hesse. He needs to pay for what he did, and they need to get a little bit of revenge. But, they can't do that if their minds are occupied with mourning and emotions, so for now, they will be pushed back until they know that justice has been served to Hesse. Steve and Kris know that they can't bring their father back, but the least they can do is catch his killer and make sure he spends the rest of his life in prison for his actions and all of the pain he has caused.
When Steve and Kris get back to the hotel, they get changed out of their uniforms and go over their mission plan once more; sneak in the house through the back door once the coast is clear, and then begin to investigate the house. They need to see if Hesse left any evidence behind, and then they need to track down the tiger and the champ tool box to try and figure out why their father mentioned them. Maybe they would find out why their father apologized for lying to them moments before his death as well. Before they leave the hotel room, they make sure to grab their Navy ID's and their service weapons just to be safe; they don't know if Hesse is lurking around the house, just waiting for them to fall into his trap or something like that. It makes Kris nervous to think about going to the house, but she knows that it is something that needs to be done so they can get some real answers.
Thankfully, when they arrive at the house, nobody else is there. They decide to park the truck down the street and enter the house through the back door, just to make sure that they aren't seen by anyone in the neighbourhood, or by any HPD members who may be lurking around the house.
Seeing her childhood home for the first time in seventeen years is an odd feeling to Kris. She would feel relieved to be at home under any other circumstance, but today, it makes her feel a little sick to her stomach. For some reason, Kris can't think of any happy memories regarding this house- all she can think of all the pain she has felt here throughout her life; this is where she lost both parents. In the back of her mind, she wishes this house would just burn down so all of the bad feelings end emotions could be forgotten along with it, but at the same time, this house is all that Kris and her siblings have left of their parents, and she simply cannot bear to part ways with them entirely yet.
Taking a deep breath, Kris follows Steve into the house. They enter into the dining room, which also doubled as their dad's office. Kris remembers sneaking into the kitchen for a glass of water late at night and seeing her father doubled over case files, always working hard, even at home. But now, instead of seeing her father sitting at the desk and deep into his work, there are evidence markers, pools of blood and blood spatter on the walls. Before Kris can get too emotional about the sight before her, she tucks it into the back of her mind and gets to work. First, she needs to find the tiger that she made for her father- hopefully there are some answers in it.
Steve makes a beeline for the desk, noticing a lack of dust right in the middle of it, perfectly shaped like a computer. Kris can essentially see the gears turning in his head as he remembers that their father hated computers and refused to buy one. Steve then looks around for something and manages to grab a print next to the computer spot, thanks to some trusty wheel lube that their father had tucked away in the desk. Steve snaps a picture of it to run once they leave the house, and then continues to look around the room for more evidence left behind by Hesse and perhaps an accomplice, based on a bloody boot print left behind that doesn't match up to Hesse's custom shoes.
It takes a few moments, but Kris manages to find the tiger along the wall behind her father's desk. She quickly moves to it and picks it up, chuckling a little bit. This tiger was one of the ugliest things Kris has ever seen or made, and its impossible to tell that it even is a tiger- it's lumpy and poorly painted, but alas, it is something that her father had cherished from the moment she gave it to him, which is something she will always appreciate.
"Got the tiger. Let's go find the box." Kris tells Steve, who nods, and follows her out of the office, and to the garage, which is down the hallway and to the right. "Looks like Hesse had an accomplice. That's probably how they managed to ambush us. Looks like there was a computer here, too." Steve explains, pushing open the door to the garage, revealing their father's beloved mercury marquis, exactly how they left it seventeen years ago.
"So, Hesse and his accomplice managed to track our calls... son of a bitch." Kris mutters to herself, now understanding how those helicopters appeared out of nowhere and attacked their convoy in Korea. She shuts the door behind her and walks to the front of the marquis. Steve pulls off the cover on the car and lets out a low whistle, running his hands along the front of it. "Never thought we'd see this beauty again. I'm glad dad could never part with it." He grins, patting the hood of it lightly.
Kris smiles, now walking around the car to look at it entirely. "Dad sure had taste in cars. God, I missed this piece of junk. It needs so much work." She tells her brother, who only smiles in reply. Their father had bought this car when Steve and Kris were fifteen, and they were all working on it together so that Steve and Kris could drive it once they turned sixteen and got their own licences. But that never got to happen, as life got in the way. Kris, Steve and Mary were all sent away to the mainland before the car was completely fixed up, so it must have sat in here for the last seventeen years. Kris sighs, and looks inside the car, admiring the beautiful leather seats when she spots something along the far wall of the garage.
The red Champ toolbox.
Kris calls Steve and directs him to the box, and then makes her way over to it too.
With a bit of hesitation, mostly because he doesn't know what to expect inside this box, Steve unlatches the lid and pops it open, furrowing his brows at the odd contents inside it.
Kris notices the contents too and sets down the tiger next to the toolbox and reaches for a black tape recorder sitting on top of a bunch of old photographs. She looks it over, and then hits the play button, revealing an old recording from their father. Her heart sinks to her stomach when she hears her father's voice for the first time since his death, and immediately turns it off, not wanting to hear anymore of it right now. She places the tape recorder back in the box, and looks over at Steve, who is currently looking at the photographs, looking rather shocked. Before Steve can say anything, there is a distant slam in the house, which immediately sends Steve and Kris into defence mode. Steve quickly puts the photographs back into the box and shuts it. Kris hurries to get some cover behind the car and hopefully get the intruder, most likely Hesse with a surprise ambush. She slides her gun out of the holster on her right hip and looks over at Steve, who motions to the door to the house that they entered the garage from. Kris nods at him, understanding that someone is about to come through it.
And sure enough, someone does. A man, kris presumes by his loud voice, who is currently yelling orders at Steve, as they both have their guns pointed at each other. They manage to come to a truce and lower their weapons to show their ID at each other once the intruder introduces himself as Detective Danny Williams; the haole that HPD put on their father's case.
Once Steve and the Detective show their ID's to each other and put their weapons away, Steve tells Kris to come out. She slides her gun back in her holster and slowly stands up with her hands in the air, so the detective does not accidentally shoot her, and finally gets a good look at the loud voice she heard yelling at Steve.
Detective Williams is undoubtedly stunning.
This is going to be a big problem, Kris thinks to herself.