Picking up his coffee, Steve McGarrett wandered out into the dark lanai. Leaning against the railings, he stared out across the sleeping city of Honolulu and sighed. He knew that he should be working on the mountain of 'important' departmental paperwork that was piled in his 'in box' on his desk but he had found tonight he was not able to concentrate, instead his mind continued to wander back to his Second-In-Command. He was uncertain just when things between him and Danno had started to change, only that over the last few months they had.
What had initially started off as a boss/insubordinate relationship so many years ago, had quickly morphed into a close friendship with the younger man before he found himself considering Danny as the younger brother he had never had. The realization at first had surprised and shocked him, he had always tried hard to keep a distance between himself and his detectives but that had soon changed after Danny had joined the team. At first he had used the excuse to himself that the closeness that had developed between his Second-In –Command and himself was just the result of them working long hours together and over-tiredness, but deep down he knew better.
But he had to admit in the last few months since Chin's death and the Frankie debacle when he had actually struck Danny on the chin before ignoring Danny's advice and returning undercover, endangering his life, the closeness they had once shared had slipped away.
With a shaking hand, Steve McGarrett fingered the folded sheet of paper in his coat pocket. He knew the words printed on the page by heart. The silent words printed in Danno's distinctive writing screamed in his mind as he looked out across the Palace grounds, the cold mug of coffee held forgotten in his other hand as his emotions within warred with each other. Part of him felt betrayed, angry, unable to believe that Danno had decided to resign and accepted a job on the mainland. But another part of him could not deny the guilt of pushing Danno away.
A single tear formed on his eyelash. Unconsciously, he brought up a hand to wipe it away as he acknowledged that the fault in the bedrock of Five-O that had started with Chin's death was now a gaping, irreversible canyon between them. Instead of tackling the problem in its infancy, his stubbornness and refusal to acknowledge the problems faced by his ohana had allowed the problem to fester, until that he had lost the person who meant the most to him, his Aikane.
Steve McGarrett was a man of action, willing to do what it took to get the job done. Yet he had failed to do so when it counted the most, and he was sick with self-loathing. His own selfish desire to keep his guys safe, so he would never have to feel the pain of losing one of his guys again, had been mis- interrupted by Danny as a loss of his trust in the younger man's abilities as his Second-In-Command. And now he had driven his closest friend and kaikaina away.
