Chapter Text
Present Day
Crunch. Swish. Crunch. Swish.
The motion of the shovel was a constant, steady rhythm. Crunch. The blade of the shovel sliced into the snow. Swish. The snow flew from the shovel to land on the growing pile at the side of the driveway. There was no pause or hesitation in the movement, just the relentless crunch swish of the progress of the shovel. Simple; mindless. Numbing. Just the way Danny Williams wanted it.
* * *
Two Weeks Earlier
“He's gone, Steve.” Chin Ho Kelly's quiet words greeted Steve McGarrett as he burst into the Five-O office complex. “He cleared off his desk, gave me his files. And he left an envelope on your desk; asked me to make sure you got it.”
Steve barely acknowledged Chin as he headed straight to his office, closing the door firmly behind him. Once inside, however, his pace slowed, and his shoulders slumped visibly as he looked at the white envelope in the middle of his desk. Not only did that paper contain his second-in-command's resignation from Five-O, it also represented his own failure to control the circumstances which had led to this conclusion. Danny Williams was gone, from his team, from the islands, and the odds were not good that he would return.
In another part of the city, Dan Williams walked across the tarmac towards the waiting airplane. Dressed casually in a muted aloha shirt and slacks, and carrying only one small bag, the sandy-haired young man did not look back as he climbed the steps and entered the cabin. He found his seat, stowed his bag, and once he was seated and buckled in, closed his eyes to the world around him and kept them shut. Not even when the plane took off into the sunny sky, providing a spectacular view of Honolulu, did he open them to take one last look at the city that had been his home for most of his life.