Chapter Text
Prologue
His dislike of boats had nothing to do with the boats themselves, or even the generally overwhelming amount of water they sat on. Oh no, without question his dislike of boats came from the rocking; the relentless, never ending back and forth that made his stomach roll and his last meal threaten to make a reappearance no matter how small the waves might be. When he woke up with his head pounding and his exhausted body aching in a far too familiar way, it was the nausea that told him he was on a boat. Correction: he was still on a boat.
Needless to say when the two men baring arms had barged into his previously pitch black cabin (cell) and dragged him off his miserably uncomfortable cot and into what could only be the ship’s dining area, he had not been the most polite of prisoners.
Four blackening bruised eyes later, only one of which adorned his own face, he found himself being forcefully shoved onto a hard wooden chair with his escorts looming menacingly behind him. They were so close he imagined he could feel their body heat on his skin and the knowledge that it would only take one well-placed elbow driving backwards to take them and their family jewels out of commission had him twitching in his chair. He kept his elbows to himself for now though, mainly because he just didn’t have the energy for any more useless fights, and crossed his arms over his chest. He felt chilled, had a headache that rivaled the first day he’d worked with Steve, and had no qualms sharing his anger by leveling his best glare at the man sitting comfortably across the small table from him.
“Mr. Williams,” Marcel greeted as he looked him over briefly, his gaze lingering on his swelling eye before he leaned forward and gently slid a cup of what looked like coffee across the table to sit before Danny. “I hope you slept well,” he addressed politely and Danny increased the heat of his glare, making no move to take the proffered drink. He wasn’t that desperate yet.
“I’d sleep better at home in my own bed, but hey, I’d settle for solid ground if that’s the best you’re willing to offer,” he snarled in response.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Daniel.” Marcel barely blinked as he stared at him and then shrugged casually, almost regretfully.
“I prefer Detective Williams,” he snapped back, and he wouldn’t lie to himself: the man was creepy. Danny clenched his fists tightly as the ship rocked and the coffee mug slid an inch to the left. Marcel’s lips quirked, apparently finding that amusing and then shifted to lean forward over the table, his fingers steepled before. “You are aware of the reasons I can not simply allow you to leave our company, of course,” his confidence absolute and grating heavily on Danny’s already strained nerves.
“And you are aware that abduction and unlawful detainment is frowned upon, even in international waters.” Danny crossed his arms more tightly in a wasted effort to feel warmer.
“Yes, well I suppose we can both agree that this would be one of my tamer felonies,” Marcel shrugged and took a sip of espresso. “But I am more interested in discussing you and your…unique disposition.”
“Let me go,” Danny snarled, anger curling in his stomach and becoming even more intense as Marcel remained unmoved across from him.
“I see you’re not yet ready to cooperate.”
“That’s not likely to change,” he snapped, met the man’s eyes defiantly, tried to hold onto his remaining calm and refused to flinch when one of the men behind him laid a heavy paw on his shoulder and squeezed in warning.
“Oh, I’m certain it will.” Marcel held out his hand and the woman who had been standing diligently behind him stepped forward to hand a dark folder over. Danny swallowed thickly as he watched it flip open and had its contents laid on the table. His eyes tracked over the colourful, glossy image and his entire world turned white hot with fury. It took everything he had to not try and leap across the table to rip the guys throat out; he knew he wouldn’t make it past standing with the men diligently guarding over him, and he forced himself to take a calm, deep breath. He was not at all comforted that the man didn’t seem even mildly intimidated. He didn’t look smug either, which was a little surprising, he just looked...interested. Deeply, intensely interested and Danny was without a doubt the object of this fascination. He looked back down at the picture before him and had to clench his jaw shut as a new fear began to build.
“Let’s talk about your daughter,” Marcel said with the politeness of a circling shark and pushed the cooling coffee mug to sit before Danny once again. Danny continued to ignore it. He couldn’t drink it now anyway, the nausea had doubled since the picture had been laid out and he had to take several deep breaths to calm down. Jesus. He felt sick with dread.
Steve had better find him.
Soon.
====
CHAPTER 1: Breaking Cover
When the shrill ringing of the phone pierced the otherwise tranquil peace of his apartment Bryce had turned his head towards the coffee table and glared at it. Across the room his brother was sitting at the kitchen table, the newspaper spread out before him and a beer in hand. He made no move to get the phone, instead looking to Bryce to see what he was going to do. Bryce frowned, mixed feelings of irritation and intrigue warring within until he finally decided that he might as well see what the guy wanted. No harm in answering even if it did interrupt a perfectly nice afternoon nap. He sat up and grabbed at the ringing phone, ignoring the multitude of other cells that sat beside it on the glass coffee table, and snapped it open with a practiced flip of the wrist.
“Yeah,” he didn’t bother with pleasantries, there was only one person who knew this particular phones number and Bryce couldn’t say he and his brother were overly impressed with the man right now. Even if he had paid them a pretty sum of money for what was an objectively easy job.
“Mr. Smith, I have some important business to discuss with you,” Bruce Hoffman announced, not sounding nearly as calm and collected as he had the first time he’d contacted them. Bryce waited a pointed moment before answering, letting the guy stew in his nerves.
“Mr. Hoffman,” he curled his lips in a smile, “I take it that the search for the tapes is not going well on your end.” It was a bit of a sore spot that he and his brother hadn’t found said tapes in either the car or at the targets home, but that was the way it sometimes worked out. Bryce generally didn’t care so long as he was paid in full by the end of the job.
“You know it isn’t otherwise I wouldn’t be contacting you,” Hoffman snapped and Bryce looked at his brother and shook his head. Clearly the housing commissioner had never expected to run into trouble in all the times he had blackmailed money out of people and he wasn’t handling the fallout gracefully. “I’ve run into a new problem that I need you to take care of.” He announced and Bryce flipped the phone onto speaker and laid it on the table. “The tapes have switched hands and I’m going to need an upgrade in your services.” Bryce frowned at this and Eric finally meandered over to plunk himself in the armchair beside him.
“What kind of upgrade are you talking about?” he pulled the beer from his brothers hand and took a swig, ignoring the glare he received in return.
“A man by the name of Daniel Williams has them now. I want him taken out.”
“Taken out?” Bryce glared at the phone in confusion, because he could honestly say he had not expected Hoffman, the perpetual white collar shark, to step up his game so drastically. There must be some kind of catch. “That’s a bold move, so I’m going to need you to be a little more specific just so I understand that we’re reading from the same book here.” There was something about the name, Danny Williams, which sounded familiar. Then his brother reached forward and grabbed the pen and pad of paper they always kept on the table and began scribbling.
“I want you to kill him and, if it’s still possible, recover the tapes he has taken. Is that clear enough for you?” their possible repeat customer growled over the line just as Eric slid his message in front of Bryce and jabbed at it with the pen. Bryce frowned.
“He’s Stan Edward’s wife’s ex-husband and the father of their little girl,” he said, but something still wasn’t adding up.
“Yes, congratulations on being competent enough to do your research. Now are you in or are you out, because I need this finished sooner rather than later.”
“That’s not how it works Hoffman. A little auto theft at gun point and some B and E is no problem, but if you want to step up to assassination then you had better be prepared to pay the price.” There was a long silence on the other end of the line and Bryce was just about to hang up, figuring the moron had gotten cold feet, when the guy finally spoke again, sounding more strained then ever.
“Five hundred thousand. I’ll pay half up front and the other half once the job is complete.” Holy shit. That certainly got his brother’s attention, and he sat forward with a hard look on his face.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Eric asked, his voice rough from not having spoken yet this day.
“You’ve got everything you need to know to make a decision,” Hoffman snapped, anger beginning to overtake his nerves but Eric wasn’t having that and, frankly, neither was Bryce.
“No, you’re leaving something out. You want this Williams guy dead, that’s fine, but five hundred? That’s a hefty bill for a nobody who grabbed a couple career ending tapes, so I want to know what the price is compensating for and if you don’t want to share up front then we walk.” There was another long pause, but Bryce had figured out by now that Hoffman was pretty damn desperate, at the point where he was probably finished in the free world whether he followed through on the hit or not. Desperate men did desperate things and Bryce and his brother had no problem capitalizing on that, but they didn’t do things blind; that tended to get you killed.
“He’s a cop,” Hoffman finally fessed up, and wasn’t that the kicker. “He’s been here just over two years and he’s threatened to blow my whole operation open. I want him six feet under before he has the chance to blow the whistle. Now are you in or out, because I don’t have time to play around here,” Hoffman was back to talking tough but Bryce ignored it, focusing instead on his brother, who was frowning in thought.
A cop. They’d killed a few guys in their time, more to settle disputes than anything else, but they had never stretched over to taking out a man in blue. On one hand if they did it and got caught the chances of them surviving either the arrest or the first few months in prison were slim to none. On the other hand if they didn’t get caught it would be the boost their underground reputation needed to step up into a higher class of the criminal world. Five hundred thousand could become a more frequent paycheck if they played their cards right.
It was a risky chance. But still, the money was pretty damn good incentive as well. After another moment of staring Eric nodded in agreement and Bryce smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.
“We want seven hundred,” he decided and there was a moment of outraged spluttering on the other end of the line before Hoffman agreed, which only made Bryce grin even more. Clearly this guy was both desperate and an amateur, because Eric and he would probably have taken this job for one hell of a lot less than the initial offer. “Get rid of that phone, we’ll have a new one in your inbox at the office by tomorrow morning. We expect the first half of the funds to be delivered by the end of the day, the second half delivered after the job is complete.”
“I’ll send it to the same account as before,” he agreed and a quick look at Eric told Bryce that that was fine for now. They’d transfer the money into their second offshore account as soon as the job was done.
“Agreed.” He ended the call and looked at his brother. “Danny Williams, huh? Shouldn’t be too hard to track down.”
“I want to swing it to look like it happened while he’s on the job,” Eric said, flipping the pen between his fingers. “If he’s a straight up cop then he’s probably already submitted the tapes as evidence against Hoffman. I’d say Hoffman’s trying to just keep him from testifying at this point so if we finish it up within a few days we can still get the full payment before his accounts are frozen.”
“Agreed. I’ll see what I can find,” Bryce stood and stretched, cracked his neck, and went to work. Turned out he only had to make one call to figure out that Williams was part of that new crack team that had been taking out some of the island’s bigger players in the last year or so. It hadn’t been hard to figure out that they were currently working on busting Nelson’s gang for running guns between the islands. Nelson was an idiot, and one of his thugs had attacked Bryce’s good friend’s little sister only the month before. He had no problem making an anonymous tip to crime stoppers, leaking the location of his main supply warehouse and hinting that there might be a shipment of weapons there at the moment.
All he and Eric would have to do at that point was follow the dream team from a discreet distance and wait until the judge finally signed the warrant on the raid.
Simple.
===
Somehow he should have known when he’d awoken that morning that his day was going to turn as rotten as the pineapple Grace had gifted him with four weeks ago. It had just been another ordinary morning in his not so very ordinary life and he’d been okay with that. Thrilled in fact, because normal mornings meant that it should have been business as usual: go to work, rile Steve up, let Steve aggravate him with his usual unrestrained ways, shoot the shit with Chin and Kono, do a boat load of paperwork, catch some criminals, try and prevent Steve from throwing said criminals out of helicopters under the guise of interrogation, and maybe grab something to eat in between.
A good, typical day at work.
There hadn’t been any warning signs, any ominous indicators, the sun had been shining, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and by six am the air had already made good headway into its usual hot and humid overbearingness. Normal. So it stood to reason that he hadn’t been expecting his day to turn to crap in such a spectacular fashion. In hindsight that had probably been the biggest warning factor of all.
The crowd on the busy boardwalk flowed by them like water in a riverbed, rushing forward with enthusiastic momentum until they approached the apparent boulder that Danny and his team represented and adjusting their course to swiftly flow past with a decent berth. Tourists and locals alike somehow instinctively knew not to get too close. Danny watched this with mixed feelings as he eyed a man proudly wearing a truly horrendous orange, yellow and purple flowered shirt and manfully suppressed a shudder.
“Hawaiian shirts,” he muttered with disdain, “yet another abomination this state has polluted the world with.” He ignored the snort of amusement from Kono by pointedly eating a scoop of his blue shave ice and shifting on his feet. She rolled her eyes at him and pointedly looked towards the beach, doing a decent job of pretending she was interested in a loose game of volleyball. Beside her Chin was slouched against the railing, one foot casually resting on a well placed rock as he sipped at his bottle of water and pointedly ignored the group of young women (the very women who had been the reason for the men to start their game of volleyball over on the beach) who kept sending him come hither grins.
Overall Danny figured they were doing a pretty decent job of blending in with the crowd, which was actually not that difficult to do when the other three members of his team oozed the aura of belonging from their every pore. His contentment at the thought wavered some when Steve, who took casual to an entirely new level as he slouched in his cargo’s and form-fitting t-shirt on Danny’s right, sharply jabbed his elbow into Danny’s ribs and glanced his way.
“Look sharp Danny, you’ve attracted a tourist,” he announced with a look that said he was both bemused and annoyed. Danny forced his posture to remain relaxed as he absorbed the warning and looked around. Damn it, this was not what he needed.
“I’m telling you brah, if you loose the tie they won’t flock to you like lost ships searching for a fellow foreign beacon,” Chin mumbled, humour in his voice even as he tensed slightly on Danny’s other side, and smoothly capped his water bottle. Danny’s ingrained sense of professionalism bristled at the teasing.
“Last I checked Hawaii was still a state which makes me as much of a countryman as you and furthermore the tie has nothing to do with attracting tourists. My general aura of competence is what draws them in,” he snapped back and then finally sighted the tourist Steve had noticed. She was an older woman who seemed to be having no difficulties as she plowed through the crowd with an expression of determination on her face. She boldly walked right at them, dragging a young child in her wake that looked rather put-upon to being yanked around. Her head was tilted slightly, her big eyes squinting from beneath her bright yellow and green visor and true enough her gaze was locked on him like a missile targeting system. It was then that he registered what she looked like and recognition slammed into him with enough force that the breakfast he’d eaten that morning transformed into a vicious ball of acid in his stomach.
“Shit,” he swore darkly and only realized he’d said anything aloud when his teammates visually shifted from easy going to DEFCON one in a heartbeat. He watched her approach with dread and forced his posture to remain relaxed with every step that brought her closer, praying that she hadn’t actually recognized him despite her very driven approach.
“Down children, she’s harmless,” he warned softly, ignoring the questioning look Steve was giving him even as they followed his lead and readopted their easygoing casualness just as she pulled to a stop before him. Danny doubted it would have mattered how relaxed his team appeared in that moment as all her attention was focused solely on him. He resisted the urge to turn tail and run, his whole body flooding with a chill that had no place under the oppressive heat of the day.
“Oh my, it is you!” She exclaimed joyfully and he barely refrained from cringing. “Why, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” she braced her hands on her generous hips and met his eyes with a big toothy grin before looking him quickly up and down. “Little Daniel! My, I think you’re still the same height you were the last time I saw you. Though I will say, you have filled out nicely,” she enthused with an exuberance that he remembered like it was yesterday. He couldn’t begin to describe how glad he was that she didn’t try to hug him.
“Mrs. Rickwood,” he nodded at her politely and ignored Steve’s amused smirk at her blatant dig at his height. He could deal with that kind of ribbing, what he didn’t want to deal with were the possible ramifications of the conversation about to take place. And there would be ramifications, a whole train load of them he was sure.
“Oh come now, we’re all adults here! You can call me Jenny,” she swiftly insisted and he tried on a thin smile for appearances sake. She cast a quick glance at the rest of the team as though noticing them for the first time before focusing upon him again with that same relentlessness he remembered as a child. “Sam and I just rolled in yesterday afternoon,” she offered without prompting, “the kids sprung this surprise trip on us for our anniversary and I just about died,” she fanned herself with a well-manicured hand and Danny looked down at the child that was staring up at Chin with unblinking eyes. He quickly looked back at Mrs. Rickwood. “But enough about me, how long are you in this delightful paradise for? Are you hear on a work related trip?” She looked at his tie briefly and if Danny hadn’t been so sick inside he would have shot Steve a dirty look for the indelicate snort he let loose.
“I’m here indefinitely,” he answered shortly, hoping she’d take the hint and be on her way, which of course she didn’t if her lighthearted chuckle was anything to go by.
“Oh, you haven’t changed much,” she enthused. “He was always a quiet little thing as a boy. I could barely get two sentences out of him in an entire week,” she added with a conspiratorial wink at Kono before his words finally seemed to register in her excited little mind. “Indefinitely? You mean to say you live here now? You must have done something right in your life to manage this.”
“I moved,” he nearly growled and crossed his arms tightly over his chest, coming dangerously close to spilling shave ice all down his shirt. “Wasn’t that hard.”
“I suppose not, but it is nice to see you looking so well after everything. Sam and I had worried about where you might have gone after you left our care. Broke our heart it did but there wasn’t much we could do about it at the time, what with how The System works.” He very nearly crushed the frigid cup in his hand. She meant well, he knew she did but her words, her complete lack of tact, hell her entire existence grated him the wrong way and sent his nerves into overdrive.
“This is Jillian,” she beamed and reached out for the kid that, by that moment, had moved on to staring up at Steve with wonder. “Martin’s little girl and my granddaughter,” she introduced proudly. Danny was really happy for her, seriously, he was just tickled all kinds of thrilled. He wanted to pull away from this entire conversation but the damn railing was at his back and he was hedged in by his teammates who had stopped looking so amused several words back and were now giving him looks that were at different stages of figuring out how exactly not happy Danny was at that precise moment.
“She’s beautiful,” he managed, because it was true and he pulled a brief smile out just for Jillian before looking back to Mrs. Rickwood, who finally seemed to be letting her brain catch up with her mouth if her slightly widening eyes were any indication. He could see the moment she finally recognized that maybe he wasn’t as enthusiastic about this meeting as she was, which might be unfair of him but he was only human and he was sure she’d get over it. She had before.
“Well, it is lovely to know you’re safe and happy,” she nodded knowingly, as if she had any idea about his life whatsoever. He didn’t even bother to respond to that, just nodded tightly in agreement and willed her to move on already. “I do hope you keep taking such good care of yourself. Sam will be glad to know how well you’re doing,” she announced, her gaze roaming to Steve, who must have been wearing a fierce expression because she was gone seconds later, dragging Jillian behind her and glancing over her shoulder at them no less than three times as she went.
Danny did not deflate in relief at her retreat; he remained frozen in place as he prepared for the impact of this piece of his past finally mixing with his present. It was a long moment of tense silence while he refused to look at his teammates, but he could feel them exchanging a silent conversation around him. Finally Steve took another spoon from what remained of his shaved ice, no doubt fortifying his courage, before sidling slightly closer so that his elbow brushed against Danny’s.
“So…that was Mrs. Rickwood,” he started with the most obvious thing in the world and Danny’s sudden headache intensified ten fold. He wanted to go hide under a rock a pretend that this had not just happened.
“You heard that, did you? How observant,” he snapped. He couldn’t help it, but Steve was more than versed to his temper by now and completely ignored both Danny’s tone and silent warning to leave it alone.
“Mrs. Rickwood from the system,” he announced carefully, “as in the foster system?” And there went another part of his carefully obscured past up in smoke. Poof. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before figuring to hell with it! He liked to keep his private life private, who didn’t? But the cat was out of the bag and now he needed to focus on damage control. Damage control in the sense of answering questions in a way that would not have his team of highly intelligent, inquisitive, and resourceful individuals trying to dig up more of his history than he wanted aired. Some things were meant to remain in the dark.
“Yes, as in the foster system,” he shook his head and unclenched his arms before looking to Steve and then Chin and Kono in turn. They all had these ridiculous looks on their faces, like they didn’t know if they should be supportive or just drop the subject altogether. It would be sweet, if he was a teenage girl and her first boyfriend had just dumped her on the day of prom. “As in the foster system that I was a part of for the majority of my elder childhood years,” he explained and at their pained expressions he grew irritated. “Look, can we stop with the faces and the empathy and just leave it at this?”
“Who’s Rickwood?” Steve ignored his plea, as expected, and Danny glared up at him with irritation that was mostly based on his inability to refuse answering any of Steve’s questions, ever. The man’s piercing gaze just ripped answers from him. It was unholy.
“She was my first foster family. I stayed with her for about half a year.” He tried to hide the bitterness in his tone, but at the sharp look the SEAL was giving him he hadn’t done a very good job of it.
“And Martin?” Steve persisted, just like he always did when he wanted to know something, and of course Danny would answer, because apparently in the last year and a bit that he’d been the guys partner he had become an idiot.
“Martin was the kid they bumped me for, the one they were waiting to adopt.” They fell silent again and he rolled his eyes, really laying it on thick for them. “It was a long time ago people, can we let it go please? I understand this might be a bit of a shock for you but we are actually working right now. Working, as in that thing we do to pay the bills and make the world a safer place for our children.”
And like magic Steve’s phone rang, loud enough that several individuals moving by them reached to check their own phones. Steve, of course, made absolutely no move to reach for his. Chin and Kono looked back and forth between them while Danny blanked his expression as best he could and stared the navy seal down. Or at least tried to, but winning a staring contest with Steve McGarrett was virtually impossible, the man could outstare a lizard and looked twice as creepy while doing it.
“You gonna get that, could be important,” Danny gestured with the hand holding his practically melted treat, only then realizing his arms had been crossed. Steve finally blinked, gave him a look that promised Danny he wasn’t done with him yet, and snatched the phone from his pocket.
“McGarrett,” he listened intently for a moment and then his eyebrows straightened out from their furrow. He jerked his head in the direction of their vehicles and began heading for the parking lot, snapping the phone shut only a moment later.
“Warrant came through for the factory,” he announced and Danny was almost relieved by what this meant.
“Wonderful, at least this time I know we’re going to have back-up,” he smirked at Chin and received an amused little grin in return, which did more to drag him away from his previously defensive mood than the halt of Stevie Wonder’s impromptu interrogation.
“We always have back-up,” Steve tossed a little frown over his shoulder and Danny shook his head, flipping the rest of his drink into a garbage can as they approached his Camaro.
“No,” he said slowly, hoping it would help emphasize his point, “what we always have is me trying to talk you into waiting for backup while Chin and Kono are only five minutes away.”
“Whine, whine, whine,” Steve muttered and then he hesitated, an honest to god pause when he finally reached the gleaming silver car, before he moved swiftly to the passenger side. It was enough to give Danny his own pause and Chin gave his shoulder a quick squeeze that somehow managed to convey both support and the promise of world peace before he and Kono sped off to their own vehicle. “We’re not in England Danny, I actually need you to get behind the wheel before I can go anywhere,” Steve called just as he slammed the door shut. Danny made a point of taking his time to get to the drivers side, pointedly adjusting his seat, buckling his belt, and adjusting the mirror before he finally started the car and pulled into traffic. They’d already waited three days for this warrant (they had sketchy evidence to begin with and he was actually surprised they got the warrant at all), a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt.
Steve was practically vibrating with tension from the passenger seat, his body still and ready to strike and he kept tossing darting little glances at Danny as he maneuvered through the traffic. Of course Danny figured that the act of actually letting him drive was as much of a peace offering as he was going to get from Steve after the little confrontation at the beach, so he was a little surprised when, after five whole minutes of edgy silence, Steve cleared his throat.
“If I-” he hesitated, his face scrunching up in that pained, uncomfortable look he got when he wanted to say something he felt was important but was slightly unsure of himself. Danny had only seen that face twice before and it made him roll his shoulders in preparation for what was to come. “If I was being insensitive back there-” he paused again, but this time because Danny had barked out a little laugh.
“Insensitive? By which you mean when you started interrogating me about my very personal history right after a very awkward and unwanted blast from the past?” He glared at the pedestrian walking across the road in front of them. Checking the rear view mirror he could see Kono and Chin practically kissing his bumper.
“I wouldn’t say interrogating-” Steve started up.
“Or the part where you asked said personal questions in front of my fellow coworkers?” Danny interrupted
“Friends,” Steve declared quietly but pointedly enough that it could have been a roar. “And yes, to all of the above,” he squirmed a bit and then shook his head at himself. “I get focused and…it was information that took me by surprise. I don’t like not knowing things,” he added petulantly and Danny shook his head in exasperation.
“What are you? Ten years old? Nobody likes not knowing things, but they, and by they I mean the rest of the human race, have a little more appreciation for both privacy and social etiquette than you and generally use this knowledge as a guideline for standard communication,” Danny waved a hand about for emphasis, but whatever unease he had felt from the questions earlier was already evaporating. He was upset with Steve no less than five times on an average day, so he generally reserved holding grudges for the really important things: like getting shot at because Steve thought that Danny and a bullet resistant vest equaled appropriate back-up when laying siege on arms dealers. He checked his rearview again to see that Kono was still following close behind, maybe a little too close for comfort but there all the same.
“So what you’re saying is that because you don’t consider me on par with the rest of the human race I can get away with pretty much anything,” Steve seemed overtly pleased by this if his twitching lips were anything to go by.
“No, that’s what you’re saying. I’m saying you’re an idiot with compulsive issues.”
“Is that your final prognosis, Doc? Cause I gotta say I think I’ll need a second opinion,” and like always Steve just didn’t seem to be affected by anything Danny had to say.
“I’ll give you a second and third opinion,” he muttered darkly and Steve leaned forward and turned up the volume on the radio.
“What?” He cupped a hand around an ear and looked apologetically at Danny. “I can’t hear you!”
Danny spent the rest of the ride pretending he was the only person in his car.
===
“You know what the really sad thing about my life is right now?” Danny swore and then popped out from behind the shiny black suburban he and Steve were using for cover to fire off a few bullets before ducking back down and glaring at the three unconscious, cuffed men heaped at their feet.
“No idea, Danny,” Steven McGarrett, the navy seal bane of his existence, responded with an insulting amount of disinterest as he swiftly stood and fired a few rounds of his own at the two remaining gunrunners before dropping back under cover. “Please enlighten me.”
“I am sensing a distinct lack of concern coming from your end of this partnership,” Danny growled. Steve sent a mildly irritated look his way, which Danny missed as he was reaching around and firing a few more rounds at the hostiles. The two men with an apparently never ending supply of ammunition were getting closer and closer to the factory’s wide open loading doors. They had clearly done this before as they were managing to make good distance while holding Danny’s entire team in place.
“No really, I’m concerned, tell me all about your sad life and maybe later we can get some mani-pedis and rent Legally Blonde.”
“You’re overwhelming me with sympathy right now,” Danny calculated that the trigger happy hostiles would reach the doors in another minute maybe, unless they decided to just break cover and run, in which case it would be ten seconds or so. He tensed in preparation. “And I prefer Sleepless in Seattle, but the reason-“ Danny flinched when the last bit of the rear window’s remaining glass crumbled onto his shoulder. “The reason that I live such a sad, sad life is because when I rolled out of bed this morning I expected to have bullets flying in my direction at least once today!” He declared pointedly.
“That’s a problem?” Steve spared him a quick glance before peeking around to check on Chin and Kono, who were crouching down behind a forklift forty feet to their left. A bullet shattered the glass in the last remaining driver side window and Steve ducked back down with a frown.
“Ignoring the fact that you apparently don’t think it is, it clearly shows that insanity is contagious. Otherwise I would have transferred back to the HPD the very same day you hijacked me into joining your little super-squad where I would have only, maybe, been shot at once every eight years or so. But that’s not my point-”
“I figured you’d probably get to that sometime tomorrow,” Steve sent some hand signals at Chin and Kono while Danny fired the last of his clip at his targets, hitting nothing but the massive crate they had ducked behind and the giant corrugated wall beyond. Little holes of light were shining through in about a dozen places, the sunbeams reflecting off the dust motes flying around. At another moment in time it might have been pretty, if one liked that sort of thing.
“The point is that I need to be institutionalized because I wake up expecting to get shot at, five times out of ten this expectation is turned into reality, and I still come into work everyday. On time,” he tagged on, because punctuality had always been important to him. “I want a raise.”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Steve responded as expected, “They’re almost out of bullets, down to the last extra mag that they had on them,” because of course Steve had seen this in the split second they’d had between restraining the first group of unconscious men and then diving for cover when these last two yahoos popped out of the woodwork.
“And of course you’ve been counting bullets,” Danny muttered and pretended he didn’t see the ‘what? You haven’t been?’ look Steve gifted him with. Instead he braced himself for the final push, knowing that it was coming. The adrenalin sang through his veins and pounded in his ears and he waited patiently for Steve’s signal to attack. The man had that intense, assessing look on his face that he always adopted in the heat of a battle. It was the look that reminded Danny again and again of why he didn’t leave this team for a safer position with the HPD. Danny instinctively trusted that look, even if to a lesser man it would be as intimidating as hell.
He saw the moment Steve made the decision to move, when the bullets from the opposition were coming from just the one guy and were sporadic enough that it screamed they only had a few shots left. So of course that was when things went squirrely, and not in a good way.
The men they were trying to apprehend were only ten feet from the massive bay doors, using the few large crates left as a last ditch cover before they made a run for it. That was when Danny heard the unmistakably startled cry of a woman. A woman who should very much not be there but was undeniably present as both gunmen stepped out from their cover. The one with the still loaded gun had her back pressed into his chest and a thick arm around her neck holding her in place. Her wide terrified eyes tearing up in terror as she clutched at the man waving the gun in front of her face.
Taking in her attire Danny realized she must have been one of the warehouses employees who had taken cover when the bullets started flying. They hadn’t realized they’d missed anyone.
“Stay back or I’ll shoot her!” The gunman threatened, his panic clear as his partner fell into step just behind him and the girl. He used them both as shields as he began guiding them backwards out the door.
“Let her go,” Steve ordered firmly, looking over to make sure Chin and Kono were still where they’d been ten seconds before. “You haven’t killed anyone yet and you do not want to graduate to that level! She’s innocent.” He tried to appeal to whatever might be remaining of the criminal’s morals and for a moment Danny was so proud of Steve for actually making an attempt at negotiation, as opposed to just shooting them first. Then he recognized that it was an impossible shot to make from this angle, unless Steve took out the hostage as well, which was generally bad for business. “There’s no need to drag her into this!” Of course they were just assuming she was innocent, what with working at a place where smuggling was apparently a fairly regular thing. Danny was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt what with the very real fear on her face.
Predictably their answer was to fire another bullet at them the moment Steve stood up and then used the distraction to hustle out the door and out of sight. Danny’s team surged up from behind the vehicles and moved swiftly to the door the moment the gunmen and hostage disappeared. Chin got there first, Kono pressing against the wall at his side as he quickly stuck his head around the wall and pulled back.
“They still have her and they’re moving fast,” he told them which was all the encouragement Steve needed to slip right past him and out into the wide open docking bay. Danny swore and chased him out onto the raised platform, scanning the opposite direction of where the idiots and their hostage had gone just to make sure no one would be sneaking up on them. Aside from the grouping of industrial sized garbage bins, a row of stacked broken crates and wooden skids and the wall of the building opposite there was nothing of interest to note and no sign of danger. The sharp retort of a gun shot echoing around the docking bay had him twisting around and crouching slightly.
“Kono! Keep an eye on the guys inside!” Chin ordered and Danny saw her nod and duck back through the bay door from his peripheral vision, not willing to take his eyes off the scene before him.
Instead of jumping down to the ground level immediately the men had moved along the upper pathway that was designed for large trucks to back into for deliveries, dragging their victim along with them. She was desperately grabbing onto the thick arm wrapped around her throat for balance as she tried to keep pace and keep her feet under her. The man holding her had fired the shot, just missing Steve who didn’t even flinch as it zinged past and through the wall beside his head. Instead their leader began stalking after dangerous perps, his weapon raised steadily in front of him as he kept them solidly in his sights. Danny, sharing a quick look with Chin, moved quickly to the edge of the docking platform, crouched down and jumped off. He landed well, his bad knee only twinging a little as his feet hit the ground and he shifted as close to the chest high cement platform as possible. He moved forward quickly to match Steve’s pace, his weapon raised and trained on the group.
The man holding the girl saw this and apparently didn’t agree with their methods. He retrained his weapon on Danny and fired and Danny thanked his lucky stars the guy couldn’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn as the bullet hit the pavement ten feet to his side. The hollow clicking that came next as he tried to re-aim at McGarrett was music to Danny’s rather cultured ears. Gotcha Danny thought darkly.
“He’s out of bullets,” he announced unnecessarily since Steve had picked up his pace the moment the gunman’s eyes had gone wide in dismay.
Predictably the bad guys panicked and, like all self-respecting citizens who had decided to make a living by hurting others, launched her bodily off the dock and took off. She shrieked as she sailed through the air, her arms pin wheeling wildly, before hitting the pavement with a painful sounding crunch.
The moment this happened the team let up on the last of the brakes, snapping forward in a rush Steve and Chin sprinted to the end of the platform and leapt through the air to hit the level ground. They didn’t spare a second glance at the hostage, intent on getting the bastards that already had a short lead and were rounding the corner at the far end of the building.
Of course they were able to do that as Danny had already been rushing to the woman’s side. On a good day Danny could keep up with his teammates, but he was under no illusions about being the slowest sprinter of this trio and right now his role was better served helping the downed woman. He also had no doubt that Steve and Chin would get the guys and, for once, no real worry as their prey was now unarmed. Without his team’s safety to distract him he fell to his knees beside the woman, ignoring his bodies protest as he did so and noting the sirens off in the distance. She lay half on her stomach, one arm outstretched above her head and the other tucked awkwardly beneath her chest. Her dark hair tumbled from its ponytail and he could see heavy bruising creeping across her forehead.
“Hey, hey there. I need you to talk to me now, can you hear me? You okay?” He knew it was a stupid question, of course she wasn’t okay, but he really needed a response. The best he got was a groan. He frowned, his fingers twitched responsively and a the familiar tingling heat began to build within his chest as he looked her over. He resisted rolling her onto her back for fear of aggravating a spinal injury but it was really impeding his ability to see her face.
“Come on now, I need you to respond to me here, tell me how you’re doing,” he demanded and was satisfied when her visible eye fluttered open, wide and pained and she cried out as she instinctively tried to curl up.
“Easy, easy, you’re safe now, I’ve got you,” he lowered his voice, trying to sound as sincere as possible and moved his hands to gently hold her in place as she began to struggle to sit up. Tears trailed down her cheek and she was having difficulty focusing her eyes. It looked bad, really bad, and the bruising across her forehead was livid. “Hey, you need to stay still, okay? Nobody else is going to hurt you but you shouldn’t move.” His senses were telling me that she was only going to get worse as he tried to get her attention. He wasn’t surprised when her already pale skin bleached even further due to shock.
“Shit shit shit,” he muttered as her eyes rolled back in her head and she began seizing, her limbs flopping around and legs twitching. He placed a hand under her cheek to try and protect from further injury and took a deep breath. This was really not good, he wasn’t exactly trained beyond basic first aid, which in his darker, private moments amused him to no end, but he knew this was bad. Possible brain hemorrhaging and soon to die bad. He could feel the truth of this, could sense that this was it for her, the last fight before her long goodnight and the pressure that had been building within his chest began banging for attention as his instincts reacted to seeing someone hurt, in pain, dying. It was always like this, even for something as minor as a damn paper cut his hands would start tingling and reaching out of their own volition. Normally he would acknowledge the feeling and then shove the instinct aside with ruthless control. Today he let it come. He let the energy build within and didn’t force it down.
He couldn’t let her die, she didn’t deserve this, she was just a victim in one of their own stings. It wasn’t right.
She was still seizing, shaking uncontrollably under his hands and he looked up to see that Steve and Chin had not come back around the corner yet; Kono was still inside. The coast was clear. He brought the hand that wasn’t cushioning her skull up and laid it gently over her forehead, right on bruised and scraped skin, and took a deep, steadying breath. He focused on the warmth that had become almost overwhelming within his chest and then pushed it, like a rushing tide, up through his arms, into his hands, out his fingers and let the energy sink deep within her skin.
His hands did not glow, there were no sparks or divine lights singing around them, just the warm gray of the old, cracked asphalt and the bright scarlet of her work shirt. Almost immediately she stopped thrashing, her limbs stilling to rest on the ground, her deathly white skin began to transform back into its lovely olive hue. He looked her over carefully, keeping his hands in place, noting that the obvious swelling and flushed red skin on her right arm was retreating, shrinking back to its natural size and colour until nothing of the previously fractured limb remained. He kept sending the energy into her, willing her to heal. Another five seconds, ten, and something within him flipped and told him it was time to stop. She was healed, done, everything within her was as it should be, and he sank back to sit on his heels and dropped his head for a long moment, taking a few deep breaths to steady himself and regroup. The warmth within him retreated as soon as it was no longer needed, leaving him with his normal temperature and his rapid heartbeat falling back into acceptable parameters.
He felt drained. If there was one thing he remembered from the few times he’d used this gift it was that he always felt so drained afterwards.
He opened his eyes to see that her own deep brown irises' were gazing up at him sleepily. He smiled and pulled his hand away from her forehead, the skin beneath it healed and unblemished but for a smear of still wet blood from where her flesh had scraped. He reached out and wiped it away with his thumb and then wiped his own hand on his pants. That morning he had cursed how badly he needed to do laundry, having only black pants to wear in the sweltering heat of Hawai’i, but now he was thankful as it easily hid the coppery fluid. He helped her sit up, no longer afraid of damaging her.
“Hey there,” he said softly as she blinked at him before looking around, her eyes widening in alarm. “It’s okay, you’re okay,” he soothed, steadying her. “I’m Detective Williams with Five-0. You’re safe with me,” she relaxed a little at that though he doubted she knew what the Five-0 actually was. “Can you tell me your name?”
“Anani Palakiko,” she replied, reaching a hand up to probe her forehead and looking confused when it didn’t hurt. “I thought… I thought I was hurt,” she looked at the raised delivery platform looming solidly before them and then to work shoe clad feet, trying to put together the facts. It was generally like this after the few times he had helped someone who wasn’t his Grace; they were always confused and tired and he never felt the slightest bit guilty when he manipulated that to its fullest and began helping her to her feet.
“No Anani, you’re understandably a little dazed from the fall, but it doesn’t look like you’re hurt anywhere. You’re one lucky lady,” he smiled kindly but was distracted when he thought he heard something coming from behind him. Turning, his hand travelling to his holstered weapon, he scanned the area but there was nothing to see. He frowned. He could have sworn it sounded like footsteps, a sort of rushed shuffling. Before he could turn his full attention back on his victim Kono emerged from the bay door, three trussed up and pathetic looking thugs trudging morosely before her as she herded them out. That explained the suspicious sound and he relaxed a little more. She spotted Danny, a quick look taking in the scene about him before deciding that everything was okay and a smile that rivaled the sun beamed across her face.
It was always disconcerting to see that smile when she had a gun in her hand.
“You guys okay?” She asked lightly as her group approached and he nodded, keeping his hand on his weapon just incase their prisoners decided to try anything.
“Just fine. Miss Palakiko took a little involuntary dive onto the ground here but she seems to be in full working order,” he gave her a comforting smile that she returned faintly.
“Glad to hear it. The Boss and Chin have the last of this group around the corner and the squad cars are just pulling in,” she announced between directing her own prisoners to sit on the platform and then shove off to join Danny on the ground before joining them herself. Like a pro she had them marching in front, apparently not needing to warn them about trying to run off, and she gave Danny a closer look as he guided Anani along. “You okay Danny? You’re looking a little pale,” she pointed out not unkindly.
“It’s nothing, just didn’t hydrate enough this morning is all. Nothing a bottle of water won’t fix,” he lied with practiced ease, feeling only slightly guilty when she bought it hook, line and sinker.
He kept a steadying hand on Anani, watching her from the corner of his eye. She was healthy and walking and looking nothing more than exhausted and emotionally traumatized. She would probably fall asleep the moment she sat back down, before then if they kept her standing around for too long, and he didn’t regret the risk he’d taken for a moment.
He never did.
As they rounded the corner and finally came upon Steve and Chin, healthy and whole and looking very pleased with themselves as they loomed over the secured men at their feet, they didn’t notice a metal door on the opposite warehouse closing quietly.
They didn’t hear the car that started up on the next street over and quickly pull away.
They didn’t notice the folder that had Danny Williams picture in it being folded up and shoved into the glove compartment, along with the gun and silencer that were unceremoniously shoved on top.
===
They had one weapon with a silencer and it belonged to Eric. He gripped it fondly as they tailed Williams and his team from the boardwalk and when it became clear where the group was headed they parked a street away from the warehouse. Moving swiftly they edged to the corner of the building they were using as cover and peered around to see the four cops pulling on their kevlar and checking their weapons. Bryce had honestly been surprised when bullets had started flying only minutes after they moved into Nelson’s hideout. He hadn’t expected the gunfight that erupted to happen so damn fast! Their plan had been to sneak into the warehouse behind the police team, find a suitable place to duck down, get their sights on the target and take Williams out when the inevitable shit hit the fan: Nelson and his crew had a reputation for not going down quietly, and apparently Five-O didn’t take no for an answer.
“We can’t go in that way,” Eric decided and glared at the echoing retort of gunshots before turning and moving swiftly to the space between the two giant buildings. “If they come out of the building in pursuit then they’ll probably come out the docking bay,” and sure enough that was exactly what happened a good five minutes later. They hid behind one of the large dumpsters, the stink of garbage rotting in the heat wafting over them, and they waited. There was a lull in the gunfire and two men appeared dragging a woman out of the warehouse and waving a gun around. The military guy, McGarrett, was on them only a moment later, moving with a cat like swiftness that impressed Bryce even though he hated the police on principal. It was barely a moment later that Williams barged out after him and they barely had time to duck down behind the dumpster as the short haole first looked in their direction to make sure it was clear.
From one moment to the next the entire team split up and the only person left in the space between the warehouses was the woman and Williams himself. It was almost too good to be true and Bryce shared an incredulous look with his brother before they began to move out and approach the blonde detective from behind. He didn’t notice them, clearly too distracted by the injured woman. She started seizing just as they pulled up close enough to take him out easily, one or two bullets to the back should do it. Eric raised the gun…and hesitated.
Bryce nudged him warningly; trying to get him to finish the job already because crazy ass McGarrett and the rest of the team could reappear at any moment, but instead of pulling the trigger Eric slowly lowered the gun. Bryce glared at him and made to take it when Eric shook his head sharply and jabbed a finger at Williams’ hovering form. Bryce looked, a lifetime of working together warning him to take the suggestion seriously.
Turns out not shooting the detective just might turn into the greatest idea of their lives.
Detective Williams was in the process of healing the woman in his arms. With nothing more than the touch of his hands.
They were close enough to physically see the swollen, red flesh of her obviously broken arm reduce to normal size and pigment. Her previously glazed eyes, wandering and vacant, were now clear and pain free. He knew what he was seeing, he also knew he was a bit too stunned to fully comprehend it but he didn’t resist when Eric gripped his shoulder and quickly hustled him back behind the dumpster. Eric carefully reengaged the safety and tucked his favourite weapon into the waistband of his pants. They looked at each other, Bryce with disbelief and Eric with a gleam of excitement that he hadn’t seen in a long, long time. One thing was undoubtedly clear to them both however: Detective Williams had somehow healed that woman back to what looked like perfect health.
It was…it was hard to believe, but they’d seen it. Bryce’s lips twitched and curled into a smile as he caught onto why his brother looked so freaking ecstatic.
What they had here was a man that could heal. By the looks of it he could heal anything. Of course they would have to figure out a way to test this, make sure it wasn’t a one off thing, but judging by the way Williams lied so easily to his female partner only moments later Bryce was willing to bet the man had healed before. Maybe even frequently.
People paid a lot of money for their health. Ridiculous amounts of money. Far more money than a one off lump sum for an assassination would pay.
Far, far more.
There was no way in hell he and his brother could pass up an opportunity like this. They retreated quietly to their car once the coast was clear and drove away in silence.
They had some plans to make.
===
Steve moved from his desk to his office doorway and leaned lightly against the frame. The atmosphere of the office was as complex as it always felt after the end of a case, and this had been one of those cases that had turned abruptly sideways and then spun around a few times just for the hell of it. They been trying to nail Nelson and his crew on and off for a few months but it had only been a few days ago that a sketchy anonymous tip came in that finally pushed the judge into signing off on a warrant.
The ensuing gunfight had always been a possibility, especially considering Nelson’s product of choice, but that didn’t mean that it was Steve’s preferred way to end a case, no matter what Danny posited. The added hostage situation had definitely not been a scenario Steve had thought they’d have to deal with when they’d stormed the warehouse that was supposed to be closed for the day. He was still battling the occasional tremor that came with the adrenalin dump he typically experienced in those situations. It was cases like these that made him truly appreciate the adaptability of his team.
Steve watched Chin for a moment as the man flipped through files on his touch screen computer table. Chin looked up and met his eyes almost immediately, a stern look explaining that there were no emotional traumas he needed help with after the shooting and even though Steve had already known this was the case he’d felt better with the confirmation. Chin gave a knowing little half smile and nod and then looked over to Kono when the sound of chairs scraping across the floor demanded their attention.
Kono stood swiftly from the conference table she’d been working at and smiled warmly at Anani Palakiko and the young woman’s rather large father. He was glad to see she was finally finished taking the young woman’s statement and she looked over at him and gave a little nod. He recognized the summons immediately and pushed away from his doorframe.
“We’re all finished,” Kono announced as he swiftly moved beside her and Steve hoped he looked sincere as he produced a business card from his pocket, glad he’d had the foresight to grab it earlier, and handed it to the young woman.
“Thank you for taking the time to give your statement today,” he said softly and Anani smiled weakly at him, clearly at the end of her rope for the morning. “What you went through wasn’t easy, so if you need someone to talk to about it, someone who might understand what you experienced,” he shared a look with her father to convey that he wasn’t trying to overstep his bounds or insult his support in any way, “then please give this woman a call.”
“Thank you,” she said softly, palming the tiny square of paper and looking around the room. “Is Detective Williams still here?” She asked hopefully as Danny popped through the doorway behind them just in time to hear the question. He had the massive mug that Grace had given him for father’s day clutched tightly in his hand and he quickly shook his head negatively before ducking swiftly back into the break room to hide. Steve resisted rolling his eyes and shook his head apologetically at her.
“No, he had to step out. Is there a message I can pass on?”
“That’s all right,” she shook her head and her exhaustion that had clung to her since the warehouse finally seemed to be overwhelming her. “Thank you for helping me,” she said by way of parting and didn’t resist as her father led her out of their office to disappear down the hall. Danny appeared a second later, looking pale and exhausted himself and cradling his steaming mug of coffee close.
Steve hid his concern as best he could, because Danny rarely responded well to questions about his health and while that normally wouldn’t deter Steve he felt he had to prove that he could actually be discreet when it was appropriate. When he chose to be. Their conversation before the warehouse ordeal still weighed heavily on his shoulders, right alongside the crater left by the bomb that had exploded about Danny’s upbringing in freaking foster care! Steve was self aware enough to know that the main reason he had launched into questions about Danny being in the system right then and there had been in part because Kono and Chin were also equally stunned and clearly wanted to understand more. The bigger reasoning behind his immediate push for answers was because he personally felt that it shouldn’t have taken a year and a half to learn this rather large fact about his friend. It had hurt his feelings, his tough manly feelings, but feelings all the same.
He just figured that after everything they’d been through together, after the personal things Danny knew about him, and the fact that his partner was rarely quiet for longer than two minutes, it would have been something that came up before a chance meeting with Rickwood had dragged it into the light. It had been a bit of a slap in the face.
Still, Steve could be tactful and subtle when he wanted despite what Danny seemed to believe and he proved that now by not pointing out how Danny looked even worse than Anani. He was pale and his whole body kind of sagged in exhaustion and Steve really wanted to lay a hand on the guys forehead to see if he was coming down with a fever or something. He resisted because he was pretty sure Danny would bitch-glare him into next week. Besides, he wasn’t the only outspoken member of this hardheaded team.
“You look like crap Brah,” Kono announced for Steve, crossing her arms as she looked Danny over critically and Danny leveled the expected glare at her.
“Please, stop, or you’ll damage my delicate self-esteem,” Danny punctuated his statement by taking a pointed drink of his no doubt still scalding coffee and leaning a hip against the table. Chin materialized beside them soundlessly and eyed the mug in a way that had Danny holding it more protectively against this chest.
“We all finished with the paperwork?” Steve cut in before she could dig further and pretended he didn’t see the grateful look Danny sent his way or the knowing look from Chin.
“I just need to proof it and then you can sign off on it,” their rookie answered first. “Miss Palakiko gave a solid statement, it should hold up in court.”
“The forensics crew going over the warehouse will be a few days yet, but once they confirm our own statements things will be finished on my end as well,” Chin explained and they looked to Danny, who only seemed to be half paying attention to the conversation as he stared out the large window on the opposite end of the room. For once he didn’t look like he was going to jump in and add his two cents and then some. Steve frowned, looking him over closer in case he’d missed an injury or something. It wasn’t like Danny to hide it when he was injured, especially not when he believed it was the fault of someone else, but he was apparently better at keeping things close to the vest than Steve had thought.
“I’m just glad Anani wasn’t hurt,” Kono filled the momentary silence for them, looking to Steve for direction and he nodded in agreement.
“I could have sworn she’d smacked her head when she hit the ground,” he thought out loud. It was the one thing that didn’t make sense to him out of this entire day and Chin nodded beside him, his sharp features pulled into a contemplative frown.
“She didn’t have a single bruise,” he agreed, “it’s unusual.” The comment seemed to snap Danny back from wherever his mind had drifted off to and he looked quickly between them before shrugging.
“Some people just don’t bruise easy,” he decided with finality and then looked at Steve. “Man, I am wrecked and I have to take Gracie to her surfing lessons in a few hours. You mind if I cut out early and finish the paperwork tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure man,” Steve agreed instantly, relieved that Danny had asked instead of having to order him to head home and get some rest. “You need a lift?”
“Nah I’m good,” Danny gave him a tired, grateful look. “See you in the morning.” He left to a chorus of goodbyes and Kono practically sprinted for the break room to get at the still fresh coffee. Steve watched Danny disappear down the hall, trying not to look overly concerned and apparently failing when Chin shifted beside him.
“He’ll be fine, Brah. Today was a heavy day for him, he just needs some time to adjust to us knowing more about him.”
“For all his talk he really doesn’t say much,” Steve shook his head wondering at the skill and Chin snorted.
“He just says it loudly.”
“I still could have sworn Palakiko took a header when she was tossed,” he swung back to the issue of the clearly uninjured woman, because there was something about the whole situation that was pinging in his gut, telling him he was missing something. He looked towards Danny’s office and noted that Danny hadn’t even bothered to shut off his computer. It was out of character enough for his sometimes anal retentive partner that it worried him a little more. Maybe he’d drop in on the surfing lesson later and check up on him; he could always say it was coincidental that they ended up at the same beach. Danny wouldn’t believe him of course, but that had never held Steve back before.
“It wasn’t a smooth landing,” Chin agreed, recapturing Steve’s attention and he looked at the shorter man, hesitating a moment before deciding to just say what was on his mind.
“You think we’re missing something here?” He knew he was frowning as he asked and he was only slightly comforted when Chin gave an agreeing nod because the look that chased the agreement clearly stated that he had no idea what it could possibly be. Of course his next statement, the only one he could really give, countered his agreement.
“It’s pretty straight forward,” Chin shrugged after a moment. “I don’t think there’s anything left to worry about,” and then he nodded his head towards Danny’s office. “I’m gonna go close up for him.” Steve watched him move swiftly into the glass walled room and sit behind Danny’s desk, briefly looking over the picture of Grace before setting to work.
Kono came out of the break room and gave Steve an assessing look before wordlessly going back to work and Steve wondered when he had become so transparent that his team, hell his employee’s, could so easily read his moods. He never would have dropped his guard this much in the Seals. He’d barely dropped it this much since his mom had died.
He looked down the hallway where Danny had retreated minutes before and shook his head in irritation. He was being ridiculous, trying to ferret out an explanation for a gut feeling that was based on precisely nothing. He didn’t even know what he was looking for. He was just worried about his partner.
He’d still drop in on Danny later though, just in case. With that in mind he marched back to his office. Chin was parked behind Danny’s desk but he was staring at the picture of Danny’s little girl as opposed to the computer he was supposed to be shutting down. Steve passed by silently, knowing Chin would work out what he needed to in his own time, like they all did.
With a sigh he slid back behind his own desk and spent the next few hours pretending to get something done.