Title: One Chance
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Steve McGarrett
Fandom: CSI: Vegas/Hawaii Five-0
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1, stories_a_z
Prompt: O
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Steve McGarrett, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Steve scowled at the phone on his desk, willing it to ring. He'd been sitting there staring at it for what seemed like an eternity; he was sure that Wo Fat was going to call him, but he had no idea when. And he wasn't going to risk missing this most important of calls.

He had to call, Steve told himself firmly. He had Greg; there was no doubt that it was Wo Fat who had snatched his boyfriend, and at the moment, he had the upper hand. He was probably waiting to call just to let Steve's anxiety and fear for Greg's life grow.

He should have known better than to let Greg walk around on the beach alone, even if he had been within sight of the house. He knew just how ruthless Wo Fat was, and he knew that his enemy would do anything he could to give himself the advantage in their little war.

No, that was a ridiculous thought, Steve told himself with a sigh. He couldn't insist that Greg go nowhere and do nothing, simply because he was paranoid about Wo Fat. He hadn't thought that the bastard would be so bold as to kidnap Greg from his own home.

They hadn't received a ransom call yet, but Steve was sure that they would. And he was also sure that Wo Fat wouldn't demand money -- but himself. He would trade Greg for Steve, and in the process, both of them could end up dead.

He wasn't going to let that happen. He had no intention of letting Wo Fat hurt his boyfriend, and he didn't plan to die himself. He would find a way to rescue Greg and get them out of this situation -- and hopefully, he would also be able to put Wo Fat behind bars as well.

That wasn't going to be easy to do; Steve knew that as surely as he knew that he needed to draw breath to live. Wo Fat had escaped justice so many times that he sometimes wondered if the man had the nine lives of a cat. It seemed to be impossible to catch him.

But if anyone could, it was him, Steve told himself firmly. This was just another dance step in their little cat-and-mouse game -- only this one could turn far more deadly for either of them than Wo Fat might have anticipated. He didn't know just what he'd set in motion.

Steve might have put up with a lot from Wo Fat, even though anything that his enemy did would have made him angry and frustrated him. But kidnapping his boyfriend was stepping way over the line, and he was going to make sure that Wo Fat paid for this.

The gloves were off, and as far as Steve was concerned, he wasn't going to play by the rules any longer. Wo Fat had thrown the rule book away when he'd dared to take Greg, and now, Steve knew that he had to do whatever he could to get his boyfriend back safely, and put Wo Fat behind bars.

But he couldn't do anything that would put Greg's life in danger any more than it already was, he cautioned himself. Greg was at the center of all this, and he wasn't going to risk his lover's safety, not if he had any kind of a choice. That wasn't an option.

Would he have felt the same way if any of his 5-0 team members had been in Greg's position? he asked himself. Of course, he would have been concerned about then, and done anything he could to rescue them. But they were trained for this sort of thing. Greg wasn't.

Yes, Greg was a CSI -- but he didn't carry a gun. He wasn't a cop, not in any way. And even though he might know how to protect himself in some situations, he hadn't had the kind of safety training that a cop got just from going through the police academy.

He didn't want to try to find his own way out of this. That would more than likely only end in the kind of tragedy that Steve wanted to avoid -- and the loss of his boyfriend. He had already lost far too many people, both friends and family, because of Wot Fat.

He wasn't going to lose Greg to that bastard. Steve could feel his hands curling into fists, feel anger rising to the surface. He had to fight to keep it down; he knew that getting angry wasn't going to do any good. It would only cloud his judgment, make him act too hastily.

That was what Wo Fat wanted. He wanted Steve to look for Greg, go in with guns blazing, so he would have the chance to put Greg in the middle of it all. He wanted to be able to say that it was Steve's actions that had gotten Greg killed, not the kidnapping itself.

His hands clenched even more tightly, the thought of losing Greg piercing his heart like a bullet. He'd do anything to rescue his boyfriend, to be sure that Greg wasn't hurt. Whatever he might have to do to ensure Greg's safety would be worth it in the long run.

Would it be worth letting Wo Fat go for good? a voice in the back of his mind piped up. Would it be worth never being able to bring his parents' murderer to justice? Would it be worth it to just let all of that anger go, to tell himself that Greg's life was worth turning his back on vengeance?

Yes, it would be, he told himself firmly. It was worth anything that he might have to do, any bargain that he might have to make with Wo Fat, to be sure that Greg came back to him safe and unharmed. The problem was that he didn't believe Wo Fat would let that happen.

Wo Fat wasn't the kind of man who would keep his end of a bargain. He would somehow find a way to squirm out of the clutches of justice -- and he would do his best to take Greg away from Steve at the same time. Steve didn't believe for a moment that he could negotiate Greg's safety.

How long had Wo Fat been planning this? Had he zeroed in on Greg from the moment he and Steve had become an open couple? Had he been following them? Had he known every stage of their relationship, every step of the way? The thought made Steve want to squirm.

He hated the idea that anyone had been watching the two of them, that their private, most intimate moments might not have been as private as he'd thought they were. It was a thought that made him feel angry and embarrassed at the same time.

Had Wo Fat actually watched them making love? Steve hoped that wasn't possible, but he rarely ever pulled the shades down in his bedroom, so if Wo Fat had found some place where he could angle a telescope into their bedroom window, it was entirely possible.

But he wouldn't have had to do that to know how close Greg and Steve were. All he would have had to do was see the way they looked at each other, to focus just a little bit too closely on a smile that they had shared, to notice the longing looks between them.

It wasn't hard for anyone to see how they felt about each other, just from one smile, one touch. If people close to them could see it so easily, then Wo Fat, who had made something of a profession out of watching Steve, couldn't have missed it, either.

Steve closed his eyes, swallowing hard as he brought his hands up to his face, resisting the urge to let the tears that were so close to the surface break free. He didn't want to cry, didn't want to let his roiling emotions out into the open. This wasn't the time to do that.

He was sure that Wo Fat would contact him soon -- him, and only him. He would probably be warned not to bring the police into this, and to keep the rest of the 5-0 team away, too. If that was what he was told, that was what he would do. He wouldn't risk Greg's life.

Once Wo Fat contacted him, he would have one chance to save Greg. He knew his enemy well enough to know that he would be allowed no more than that -- and that if he failed, not only would Greg's life be forfeit, but his own, as well.

If he couldn't bear to think about a life without Greg in it, wouldn't Greg feel the same way about him? So he couldn't consider sacrificing himself to save Greg; that wouldn't be fair to the man he loved. He had to find a way to get them both safely out of this situation.

That was probably going to be one of the hardest things he'd ever tried to do, but he would do it, Steve vowed. He would face down Wo Fat, and he would bring Greg home safely. And once he'd done that, he find a way to make sure that Wo Fat never threatened his lover again.

Steve sighed, shaking his head and almost feeling the urge to smile, albeit wryly. That was never going to happen. Wo Fat was never going to leave the two of them in peace; now that he knew how much Greg meant to Steve, Greg would never be safe again.

Somehow, he had to find a way to get Wo Fat out of their lives permanently. And the only way to do that would be to kill him. Even if he did that, there would always be others who would want to avenge Wo Fat's death; Steve would never be without deadly enemies, no matter what he did.

He couldn't think about that now, Steve told himself, pushing the thought away and locking it down in the back of his mind. He had to concentrate on Greg, and the one chance that he would have to rescue his boyfriend. He had to grab that one chance and hold on with everything in him.

He raised his head from his hands slowly when his cell phone rang, his gaze focusing on the phone lying on the desk in front of him. Slowly, he reached out a trembling hand to pick it up, knowing whose voice he would hear on the other end, and dreading what it might tell him.

***