Steve could hear the shouting before he even hit the top of the staircase at the Iolani Palace and he hurried down the hallway to the Five-0 offices. Pushing through the door, he saw Chin and Kono at the Smart Table, Grover was nowhere in sight and Danny was pacing back and forth in his office, where all the noise was coming from.
Looking at Chin, Steve jerked his thumb towards Danny's office, just as Grover emerged from his own.
"Rachel?"
"Nah, brah. There was another editorial in the Star Advertiser about Five-0 today. He's on the phone to the Editor. Again."
"Oh." Responded Steve.
"That's what's got him all worked up? I read that piece, it seemed even-handed to me. They definitely nailed us on some of our … questionable … enforcement practices." With that Lou looked at Steve who had the audacity to smirk back at him. "But, they also pointed out the statistics of the reduction in crime on the island overall. I thought it was a fair article."
"It's not the article that has Danny riled." Kono smiled at Lou.
"Yeah, it's the comments on the article. Particularly the anonymous ones. Whenever an article is posted about us online, there are always people who comment about the article. Or about us. And some of the comments are not flattering. At all. Danny gets pissed about all the negative comments, but he loses his shit when it's a negative comment and it's anonymous." Steve shrugged his shoulders at that.
"Talking about me, behind my back again, Steven? I thought I told you about that." An extremely red-faced Danny had emerged from his office.
"Take it easy, Danno. Just explaining to the new guy why we're going to have sound-proofing for the office on our next budget request."
"You think that's funny? You think that's funny?" Danny was spluttering now.
"Well, actually…." Steve began.
"Take it easy, Danny." That was Chin with his usual zen-like calm. "Consider the source."
"I would LIKE to consider the source, babe. But I cannot. Because the source felt he could make his nasty little comments and then hide behind Anonymous. Makes it a little hard to consider the source."
Danny finally deflated a little.
"I don't mind constructive criticism, you guys know that. I see that eye roll, Steven. It's when the comment isn't constructive. It's just designed to break our balls. And the ballbreaker doesn't even have the stones to sign it. Then, I get a little pissed. It's easy to stand on the sidelines and comment. It's a lot tougher to do what we do, and put it out there on the line, day in and day out, hoping we're doing the right thing and just trying to get through the day."
"Danny, you gotta stop being so sensitive, man. Opinions are like assholes, ya know. Everyone's got one. Just let it slide off your back and don't let it bother you. The majority of the comments are usually in our favor, but you always stew over the one or two that don't like us and think we should be fired. Haters are always gonna hate."
Kono threw her arm around Danny's shoulders.
"Brah, come on. I'm going to get you a whole box of cocoa puffs. The only thing we can do is just keep doing what works for us. As long as we think it's good, screw what some faceless, nameless poster thinks, right? We all get back alive at the end of the day and that's the only thing that matters."
"Thanks, babe. I think I'm gonna need a Starbucks too."