and crusty, and her entire body was comfortably warm and dry. She considered falling back asleep, but then voices filtered through the blackness.
“She’ll be up soon,” a familiar female voice said. “There’s no way she’ll miss the start of construction.”
“I don’t think she has a lot of choice in it, Nikki,” remarked another familiar voice, this one male. “I don’t think injuries particularly care if you have something coming up.”
“Wish they did,” KK muttered, peeling her eyes open. “I’d tell this migraine that I had a date and ask it to reschedule.”
She managed to force the weighted blanket from her eyelids and found four faces staring back at her, all with identical expressions of ecstatic relief.
She was in a hospital room. Sterile white walls surrounded her with bland photos and a window. A curtain was drawn to her right, which meant someone was probably there. To her left was a door opening onto a tiled hallway. She could feel tight bandages wrapped around her head and she winced as she poked at it.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to poke at it,” Tony reckoned. KK made a face and he grinned.
“One of these days you’re going to stop acting like a big brother,” she grumbled.
“Maybe on a day when you don’t wind up in the hospital,” Tony retorted, still grinning. “But I’m glad you’re okay.”
He reached out and squeezed her hand, and KK smiled. She’d known Tony since they were kids, and even though he was now her employee, he still remained one of her closest friends. It was no wonder he was one of the first ones here.
“Honestly, though, I kind of want to hit you in the head again after your parents told me how you wound up in the hospital. Jumping off a moving boat to go after poachers?” He shook his head exasperatedly.
“I was jumping off a moving boat to rescue a calf,” KK corrected, pushing herself into a seated position as she looked at the others huddled around her. Nikki was seated next to Tony, her red hair falling down one shoulder. Normally, she wasn’t the easiest to read, but the relief in her eyes was obvious. On the other side of the bed were two other women: Reese and Pamela. Reese, a beautiful, middle-aged woman was beaming with relief down at KK. Pamela was scowling, but it was the scowl Pamela always used when she was happy.
Nikki shook her head, her red hair swishing with the movement. “You’ve always been one to jump first and ask questions later when it comes to animals in trouble,” she teased.
“So what happened exactly?” Tony asked. The three women nodded, all of them leaning forward eagerly to listen.
KK opened her mouth to tell them the story. Then paused. Blinked. Closed her mouth. Her brow furrowed, then she winced in pain as the bruise stretched with the motion. “I… don’t remember,” she finally moaned. “I remember releasing Majestique and Simon and then going after the other boat. I remember seeing that there was a calf trapped in a net and…” She trailed off, shaking her head and instantly regretting it when the room began to spin. “After that I don’t remember anything.”
“That’s so weird,” Nikki commented, her eyes wide. Her eyes lit up. “Oh my god, I should text Justin about this!”
Pamela scoffed, not bothering to hide her annoyance while KK and Tony exchanged amused glances. Ever since Nikki had gotten married a couple of months earlier, she talked about her new husband Justin whenever she got the chance, much to the amusement of the other employees at the aquarium and to the annoyance of Pamela. Pamela, despite being quite possibly the best wedding planner on the island, had strong opinions on the matter of marriage ever since her divorce a few years earlier. Despite that, she still was borderline obsessive when it came to other people’s weddings. She’d even planned Nikki’s. You would think that Pamela would be flattered by the fact that Nikki raved about how perfect the wedding was on a regular basis. To be honest, she probably was, Pamela just liked grumbling too much to admit it.
“How long have I been out?” KK asked.
“Your parents found you on the beach last night,” Reese told her. “It’s a little before nine in the morning right now.”
“Nine in the…” She trailed off, then glanced at Nikki and Tony. “Who’s at the aquarium? Mom and Dad?”
“They’re outside,” Reese pointed behind her. “We had to fight them to get in here for a couple of hours.”
“Someone needs to look after the animals if they haven’t been fed yet.” KK moved as if to get up, and Tony and Reese both pushed her gently back to the bed.
“Of course you’re more worried about the aquarium than you are the fact that you nearly died last night,” Tony said, shaking his head. His hand went to her arm and he squeezed gently. “Relax. Deb and Tim are looking after things.”
That didn’t relax her at all, but before she could ask any more questions, Reese was speaking again.
“Your parents told us all about it,” she shared. “I’m pretty sure they’re furious with you for jumping into the water from a moving boat. Apparently they came across you after you had passed out and brought you here. Though I wouldn’t have found out if Nikki hadn’t told me.” Reese shot KK a glare, as if it were her fault for not telling Reese she had been concussed and knocked out the entire night, despite the fact that she’d been, well, knocked out.
Reese was still talking. “Anyway, I got here as fast as I could, and when I got here the nurse said I couldn’t come in, that there were already too many people in the room—”
“Let her rest,” Pamela ordered, her German accent even more prominent than normal. She bent down and grabbed something that had been sitting beneath her chair, a small rectangular container. “Here, I brought you a treat.”
She opened the box to reveal mouthwatering malasadas, a Hawaiian donut. KK’s stomach rumbled at the sight and the smell of freshly baked dough and sugar made her stomach growl.
“Uncle Senior?” she asked, plucking one from the box and stuffing it in her mouth. She moaned at the taste of the haupia filling. It was quite possibly the best tasting thing she’d had in a week, or at least since she’d last had Uncle Senior’s malasadas.
“Naturally,” Pamela sniffed. “I only buy from the best.”
“I think you’re just obsessed with them,” Nikki chuckled. “You basically forced me to have them as a dessert option at my wedding.”
“Of course I did.” Pamela looked almost confused. “Your wedding needed to be perfect, didn’t it?”
Again, KK exchanged an amused glance with Tony, both of them pursing their lips to stop themselves from giggling. At this point, KK was surprised Pamela hadn’t tried to marry Uncle Senior just so she could have unlimited access to her favorite treat.
As Pamela plucked out one of the malasadas for herself, a middle-aged man in scrubs and a doctor’s coat came in.
“Hi there,” he greeted, holding out his hand to KK. “Glad to see you’re awake. I’m Dr. Kanoa.”
“Keiko Kawai,” she replied back with a small smile, shaking his hand. “KK.”
“So I’ve heard.” He glanced around at the group of people huddled around her bed. “I do need to take care of my patient, and I’m fairly certain her parents are foaming at the mouth in the waiting room to see her, so I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to step out.”
“Of course.” Tony stood, as did the three women. He glanced at KK. “I’ll see you soon, all right?”
“We all will,” Nikki chimed in. “Just don’t go after any more poachers until after you’re out of the hospital.”
KK snorted. “Deal.”
Dr. Kanoa looked her over quickly and expertly, before standing again, once everyone had shuffled out of the room.
“Well you have a major contusion on the side of your head, and while I'm worried about the loss of consciousness, the CT shows no signs of concussion. You should be good to go home tomorrow,” the doctor confirmed. “We’ll keep you here for the day and release you first thing tomorrow.”
“Fantastic,” KK sighed, laying back so her head was resting on the pillow. “I hate being cooped up like this.”
“You’re not the first person to say that to me,” Kanoa chuckled. “I’ll have the nurse come in and check on you later. In the meantime, I can tell your parents to come in, if you want to see them.”
KK nodded, and not two minutes after the doctor had vanished, both her parents hurried into the room. Katerina’s wavy brown hair was frizzy and unkempt, and her father had large bags under his eyes. KK felt a stab of guilt for making them worry so much.
“Oh thank goodness you’re okay,” Katerina gushed, hugging her daughter. “Don’t you ever do something that stupid again.”
“I’ll do my best, mom,” KK promised, breathing in the lilac smell of her mother’s perfume. “In my defense, I wasn’t exactly thinking things through.”
“I know,” her mother said, her lips pursing even as her eyes sparkled with relief. She leaned forward and whispered, almost conspiratorially, “You get that from your father.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joseph claimed, hugging KK. “I’m the perfect soul of caution. And I have definitely never jumped off a moving boat.”
“What about that time in our twenties off the coast of Kauai?” Katerina asked, folding her arms as she eyes her husband.
“Okay, so I might have done it once or twice. But I was never chasing after armed poachers while doing it.”
“Sorry,” KK muttered.
“We’re just glad you’re alright,” Katerina grinned. “Um, that reminds me. A detective is in the waiting room as well. We filed a report and he wants to talk to you, if you’re feeling up for it.”
“Absolutely.” KK nodded with renewed energy. “Anything to bring those poachers to justice.”
The man who walked in behind her father looked young to be a detective. Maybe it was the round face or the unassuming posture, but he didn’t exactly scream ‘law enforcement.’ Then his brown eyes met hers, and the intensity in his gaze made her completely disregard that impression.
“Hey there,” he said, smiling. “I’m Detective Max Kremer. You must be Keiko.”
“KK,” she insisted. “But yeah, that’s me.”
“Your parents told me a bit about what happened,” he started, gesturing over to where Katerina and Joseph were standing. “However I was hoping you could tell me what you remember.”
KK gave an amused snort. “I can’t tell you much,” she sighed. “I don’t remember a lot of it.” With that, she told him what she could, and as she did, she found that more of her memories came back. Not all of them. She couldn’t remember what the poacher looked like or anything like that, but enough to at least remember how she wound up on the beach instead of drowning in the ocean.
“I think the little dolphin…” she trailed off, then her eyes shot open, and she gasped. “The dolphin calf! He was hurt. We need to find him.”
“It’s okay sweetie,” her mother soothed. “We found him. When we found you on the beach he was in the ocean nearby. He refused to go anywhere until he knew you were safe. Your father managed to get him and take him to the aquarium where our vet is looking after him now.”
“He’s going to be alright?” KK asked anxiously. Her parents looked at one another but said nothing.
“Can you guys think of any reason people would want to poach dolphins?” Detective Kremer asked, momentarily distracting KK. She gave her parents a long, speculative look before answering Kremer’s question.
“Mostly for bait or food,” KK grimaced. “It’s pretty disgusting.”
“Bait?”
“Sharks,” KK clarified. “Poach something illegal so you can do more illegal fishing.” She shifted in her bed, wincing slightly as she did, to get a better look at her parents. “The calf is going to be alright, isn’t he?”
She hated the look that flashed between her parents at the question. It didn’t take a genius to know what they were thinking. The idea that the little calf might not make it was enough to chill any of the good humor her friends had given her.
“We don’t know, sweetie,” Katerina said gently. “We hope so. But right now he’s so depressed it’s hard to tell. He’s barely swimming and he won’t eat on top of the injury. We don’t know if he’ll make it.”
KK’s eyes narrowed and she gritted her teeth.
“He will,” she avowed. “I’m going to make sure of it.”