#also i get stronger every time he refers to cain's house as 'home'

[spookyboywhump]

I read this and its amazing but initally I read Valire as Vanessa and now have a need for Vanessa fussing iver Zander during sad boy hours.

Oh I couldn’t resist this one

Vanessa certainly tries her,,,,, best?

 CW: Not much, mentions of starvation and very vague references to past noncon

***

 He didn’t mean to start crying, but he couldn’t help it. He’d cried the night before he’d been left at Vanessa’s house, and now here he was, crying the night before he’d be returned to Cain. He hadn’t wanted to come here, but now that he was here he didn’t want to leave. Both were miserable places, both were complete nightmares and sources of pain, but still, he wasn’t ready to go back, he wasn’t ready to be hungry and exhausted all the time, wasn’t ready to be forced into a fight and wasn’t ready to deal with the pain that would come whether he won or lost. 

 He was laying on her bed with her, Vanessa usually let him on the furniture, his head resting on her lap as he laid on his side. She’d put something on the tv in her room but he really wasn’t watching it, too lost in his own thoughts as she combed his fingers through his hair. She’d washed it for him the night before, it was fluffier and more unruly than normal, which she seemed to like. He’d thought about going home the next day, about that cell, about how long it would be before he got to eat again, to really rest again. Resting came with a price when he was with her, one he paid whether he was willing or not, but right now, he just didn’t want the few moments of peace he got to end. His vision blurred with tears he struggled to blink back, and he sniffled softly, which is what finally caught Vanessa’s attention. 

 “Zander…? Hey, what’s wrong dear?” She asked, pulling on his shoulder so he was on his back, staring up at her. He didn’t want to tell her, though she was looking down at him with enough concern in her eyes that he was almost convinced it was real, her long blonde hair falling over her shoulder, just barely brushing against his face and tickling his cheek. Not for the first, or even last time he couldn’t help but think she was so fucking beautiful. Why did it have to be her?

 “Nothing…” He said, as if it wasn’t an obvious lie, and she rolled her eyes.

 “Don’t give me that…” She said gently, brushing his hair back from his forehead. “Come on now, what’s the matter?” She asked. Telling her he didn’t want to leave would cause too many problems, he already knew that and he didn’t want to deal with the reaction it would get. He sniffed, reaching up to try and wipe away his tears before they could even fall.

 “I-I’m just… just in pain, that’s all…” He murmured. It really wasn’t even a lie, he was always in pain. At least it made for a good excuse when he needed it. “Y’know, my back and all… just always hurts…”

 “Aww, you poor thing.” She said sympathetically. He hated it when she said that, he knew she took far too much pleasure in his suffering. “Here, sit up and take your shirt off.” She said, and he let out a shuddering sigh as he did what he was told, already knowing what she wanted him to do. He laid back down on his stomach, burying his face in his arms while she moved to hover over him. 

 He was able to pass off the whimper that escaped him as one of pain while she tried to massage the constant ache out of his shoulders. Admittedly, she’d done a pretty good job before. At least he was getting something out of this, keeping his jaw clenched and holding back as much noise as he could, silently crying into his arms. Her hands were warm on his back, and she was never bothered by the scars, but then again she’d caused some of them herself.

 “It’s alright my love…” She said softly as she massaged his back. “You must be in so much pain all the time… but you’re strong, you can handle it.” She told him. He knew that. He was strong, he could handle a lot, but he didn’t fucking want to. He was tired of “handling” it, he just wanted a break, one that didn’t come with conditions. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had that at all.

 She did succeed in lessening some of the pain he felt, which was some relief to him. She’d let him put his shirt back on before laying down with him, but she was holding him close, running her hand through his hair again. No matter what the action would always calm him down, make him feel sleepy, as if the crying hadn’t already done that. He managed to calm down before she’d finished, only letting out a small portion of what he really felt. Now though he just closed his eyes and hid his face against her, letting her try her hand at “comforting” him. 

 “Poor boy... “ She sighed. “Cain must be overworking you. If I could I would just keep you… I’d give you the love you need.” She said, and he chose to pretend he didn’t hear her. Going back to Cain was bad. Being here was bad. No matter what he was trapped, and hurt, and unhappy, but at the very least he could try and pretend that at least part of it was okay, at least for the next couple of hours, he was as okay as he could ever get.

[itsalycenotalice]

Five-0 Redux: A warning from McGarrett’s past reminds us of what matters most

By Wendie Burbridge / Special to the Star-Advertiser May 6, 2017

For the most part, fans watch “Hawaii Five-0” for more than just the pretty scenery,  shoot-em-up action, and intense drama. Not that viewers don’t enjoy that part of the hit television show, it seems as if they want more than just a typical police procedural.

Earlier this week, I was talking to former principal and personnel director of Hawaii’s public schools, Wendell Staszkow, about “Hawaii Five-0.” Like most Hawaiians, Staszkow watched the original Jack Lord, James MacArthur, and Kam Fong version, which aired from 1968 to 1980. Today, as an “ex-pat” living in Las Vegas where he works as an admissions counselor for UNLV, he watches the reboot to get a weekly dose of his island home– and because his daughter writes this column. While we were talking on the phone last Sunday, he said the best thing in all my years of writing about the show.

“Sometimes I want to watch “Hawaii Five-0” just to see them chase the bad guys, lock ‘em up, and then go have a beer,” he said.

I had to laugh. I’ve had fans around the world tell me what they like and love about the show, but my dad wins the “best fan quote” award in seven seasons. Because while the plot my father presents is simple, easy, with no frills– these are usually the kind of episodes many of us enjoy the most. Sure, we like the car chases, and the gun fights, and the funny subplots with our secondary characters– but all in all, give us the good guys catching the bad guys, add a pau hana beer to the mix, and that is a great show.

So this week’s episode had me a little trepidatious. The episode, written by Rob Hanning and directed by Krishna Rao, was titled “He keʻu na ka ʻalae a Hina” which means “a croaking by Hina’s mudhen.” The title comes from a traditional ʻōlelo noʻeau, or Hawaiian proverb, that means “a warning of trouble, as the cry of a mudhen at night is a warning of distress.”  The cry of distress comes from Naser Salaam (Omid Abtahi), an inmate at Gitmo, who McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) once showed great kindness to after he was captured by McG’s SEAL team ten years earlier.

Salaam asks McGarrett to come to Guantanamo Bay, so he can tell him in person about an impending terrorist attack on Oʻahu. He tells McG that if there is anyone who McGarrett loves on Oʻahu, “to get them off the island, and get them off now.” When McGarrett brings the news to his team, they are beyond skeptical. Yet, McGarrett feels that Salaam is paying McG back for the way McG treated him when he was being interrogated for information.

I loved the flashback scenes between McG and Salaam. While they were painful to watch, as Salaam has obviously been beaten and tortured, it is McGarrett’s actions that make the scenes between them so important. McG treats him with dignity. He brings him a prayer rug, allowing him ten minutes to pray. He gives him a meal after he has not been fed for a week, even though he is reprimanded by the CIA Operative (Terrell Clayton), who is in charge of gaining intel from Salaam. He sits with Salaam, speaking to the prisoner like a man and not as his enemy. He brings Salaam water as it is obvious he has not had any in days. It’s implied that McGarrett has brought Salaam clean clothing that also covers him appropriately for his prayer time. All of this tells us that McGarrett has tried very hard to treat Salaam decently, with respect, and kindness.

O’Loughlin is always so good in these intimate scenes. He can tell you so much with his eyes and his face. When he removes his ski mask, so that Salaam will see his face, we know he means to gain the man’s trust. As McG talks to him and spends time with him– man to man– rather than enemy to enemy, we can see how his actions reveal his desire to show Salaam that not all men are cruel.

Likewise, Abtahi is equally as strong in each scene, using his eyes to tell more of his character’s story. His character doesn’t speak much, just watches McGarrett for clues on how he is expected to act. It was intriguing to watch the two men play off each other. Both O’Loughlin and Abtahi make these simple, stripped down, scenes work on a much deeper level.

It is this strong use of these quiet scenes, peppered between the bigger and bolder scenes of action, and the Five-0 team chasing the bad guys, that help to make the episode so strong. It is in these scenes, with no special effects or stunts, where we can see how well “Hawaii Five-0” tells a story.

For me, it’s what saves the story. The impending terrorist attack seems so unlikely. Yet when it is coupled with the flashback scenes, showing the development of Salaam’s admiration of McGarrett, that helped to give the terrorist plotline a much stronger frame of reference.

While the Five-0 team chase down Salaam’s tip– to search for intelligence using the code name or phrase “Cain Allah.” With Jerry’s (Jorge Garcia) outside-the-box thinking they realize that perhaps it was an attempt at pronouncing Hawaiian words. So the closest to the word “cain” would be the word “kane” (pronounced kah-nay) or Hawaiian god of the sky, and instead of “Allah” the phrase “ala” as in “the way of”– which means, as McGarrett translates, “the way of the sky.”  

Lou (Chi McBride) and Kono (Grace Park) search a travel agency, Ala O Kane, and find that it is actually a front for a “Hawala” which is a traditional way used in the Muslim world to transfer money. It was a way for families to send money home and is mostly based on trust and honor. Yet the team finds all of the paper records of transactions and quickly send the names to Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) who finds a link to a supposed suspect, Adnan Khalid (Nick Shakoour). Khalid is a naturalized American citizen living and teaching in Hawaiʻi, and as they search for him the show gets to turn on their high-powered action.

Five-0 storms Khalid’s house and find a planted video that announces Jihad and the reason for the terrorist attack. The video is set to be uploaded at 6:20 that evening, but they still do not know where Khalid could be. Lou and McG stake out a mosque in Mānoa and have Chin call his burner phone– as it rings, the two chase the owner of the phone, only to have him try and escape on a motorcycle before he is fatally t-boned by an oncoming car.

Once McG turns him over, they realize it was not Khalid they were chasing, but someone else. Seems as if Khalid is being framed to make it look like he is the one orchestrating the terrorist attack. As Lou and McG continue to search for a possible target, they find a photo on the dead bad guy’s burner phone and make a connection to an empty downtown office building.

They think it’s odd that an empty building is going to be attacked. But as they head toward the building, Lou sees that it is in the flight path of oncoming planes. Chin checks all 6:20 flights and realizes that a Marine, who was killed trying to arrest a high-ranking Al Qaeda leader, along with several members of his unit, are on a flight arriving shortly after 6:20. It is also scheduled to fly right over the empty office building.  

I think this is where I start to notice the extreme difference of the stunt work of the show versus what it was just a few episodes ago. Stunt coordinator Eric Norris is obviously a complete professional, but his stunts are far more violent and brutal than they have been in the past. While I don’t normally mention that, I sometimes think perhaps too much violence doesn’t work for this show. We want our team to live and not limp– or have so many black eyes. I’m not trying to be a baby– but really, does McG have to get beat up so bad every week? His shiner at the end was awful. Kudos to the make-up team because it looked so real, I hurt for the guy.

So the team realizes that the terrorist attack is that they are going to shoot down the plane filled with innocent civilians and marines– and race to the roof to stop it from happening. McG ends up crawling up the side of the office building, using little more than the fingerhold ledges, to make it onto the roof. I suppose good shoes and gloves helped. Kono and Lou have a standard shootout with two goons protecting the roof access door, so the real terrorist can shoot down the plane with an over the shoulder rocket launcher.

Once McG gets to the roof, the fight that ensues is not at all pretty. McG stabs a knife into the bad guy’s groin and takes a few good punches before he finally just picks up the rocket launcher. When he blows our unnamed bad guy to dust with a well-aimed rocket, we’re pretty excited/shocked/surprised. Good thing the building was empty because the rocket sure left a mark, as well as a small fiery crater.  

I suppose that means that my dad got his way this week. Five-0 did chase some very bad guys; they saved the innocent, the framed Khalid; they stopped the terrorists from killing the Marines who were bringing their hero friend home; they had a couple of high-speech car chases and cool gunfights; there was a motorcycle stunt; McGarrett risked his life crawling up the side of a building and engaged in some slick hand-to-hand combat–  before taking someone out with a rocket launcher.

And the team ended up having beers and shrimp fried rice at Kamekona’s, where we also tied up the humorous moment of the episode. Humor is always important for an episode and this week didn’t disappoint with Gerard Hirsch (the beloved Willie Garson) returning to again ask Kono to come to his rescue. This time, Adam (Ian Anthony Dale) helped Hirsch with a business plan to expand his crime scene cleaning business. Adam helps him rewrite the plan and shows it to Kamekona (Taylor Wily). Kamekona gives Hirsch the money to expand, thus becoming his partner in cleaning up crime.

So, Dad, you win. This week’s episode had all the parts you like– but it also had the kind of scenes that reveal so much about the character of Five-0. It is those moments that help to show the deep feeling of justice that McGarrett upholds no matter what he faces or what returns from his past.

SOURCE - http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/05/06/features/five-0-redux/warning-mcgarretts-past-reminds-us-matters/