Recriminations

Chapter 1: Unknowing.

Hey Five O fans! It's been a while, I've been busy and still busy but this muse wouldn't let me go. So, here's to hoping you like it. Your feedback would be most appreciated. I'm sure there are typos, be kind to give me a heads up. Cheers.

They hold a grudge, like it was their family treasure.

...

Detective Danny Williams woke up on the beach. On the beach, of all places. He was starting to get 'rationally concerned' with his own behavior of late. He'd been having these headaches and black outs and now sleep walking? And on the beach, of all places? This was starting to feel like a horror movie, and he didn't want any part of it. The real scary part was, he didn't even remember how he got here. He couldn't remember anything past…well, who knows when? He just…he really needed to go see his doctor again, the meds he had prescribed him were really starting to mess with his head. They had been helpful, nothing major really, nothing out of the ordinary than his usual anti-anxiety pills, helping to keep his blood pressure on the normal sort. It had been a recent thing too, after Grace's recent accident he had found himself unable to sleep right, despite Rachel's almost constant presence these days, he really had needed something for the nightmares of Grace crashing, the car rolling over and over again, he really couldn't sleep. So, he had gone and seen a Specialist who had prescribed said pills, they had been working great, he could not complain, until recently. He had started experiencing these mild, almost constant migraines, he took some pain killers for those but then they turned to black outs. He could not pin point when exactly it started or how, neither could he begin to explain it to himself, let alone to another person. So, nobody knew about it, not Rachel, not even Steve. It hadn't been anything to mention anyway, it really was just minor headaches. As for the blackouts, he hardly knew he was having them until recently when he started missing some tiny bits of his memory, minor stuff, nothing to get concerned about but still… missing pieces in his memory that he was sure he was supposed to have. It was hardly concerning, probably some part of his subconscious he shouldn't even notice was gone, but he noticed, and he was getting just a little bit disconcerted. And that was before he woke up on the beach this morning, with no idea of how he got there. Now that was concerning, that was downright scary, if he would dare admit it to himself.

After checking himself for any injuries or abnormalities, besides the obvious, and finding none, he just lay there on the sand for a while, exhausted, his mind tired of trying to figure this thing out. What the hell was happening to him? He wondered. Sleep walking, and this far out on the beach? He had never done that, not even as a kid, he had never had any such problems and no one in his family as far as he knew had ever sleep walked. This was really starting to freak him out and maybe it's time he told someone, starting with his Doctor, and Steve.

Steve…crap! He was late for work; of that he was sure, even thought he had not looked at his watch yet. If he wasn't in his sleeping shorts and t-shit he would have easily assumed he had been robbed and dumped out here on the beach, but he knew batter. Somehow, he knew that he had walked all by himself all the way to the beach, just as good as he knew he was late for work. Shit!

Danny groaned and scrambled to his knees to get up, dusting the disgusting sand from his hair and clothes. Just what he needed, sand all over his him, and in his ears too. Damn this Island and it's beach! And to think he would choose this as his dream, lala land, to sleep walk to. Of course!

He had to get going though, he had to get back home, assuming he knew which way home was. He had to get a shower and get to work before Steve issued a BOLO on him. Shit! He had to call Steve first and tell him he was running late, overslept, something like that and that he was on his way.

He reached for his pockets. He didn't have his phone. Of course! It started off as a bad day, why not just go with the flow.

…..

Danny made his way to HQ after about an hour of tracing his steps to get back home and making a rush job of showering and dressing up as best he could under the circumstances. None of his meticulous care of his hair, or his general appearance. His phone, which was by his bedstead as expected, showed quite a frantic number of missed calls from Steve. Just great!

As soon as he walked into HQ, the whole team turned on him with worried faces, turning into relief.

"Damn it! Danny, where the hell have you been?!" Steve asked, not masking his relieved but pissed off face.

"Don't tell me you were worried." Danny tried to lighten the moment.

"Don't even try to joke about this Daniel. I was about to come with a unit to your house. You didn't answer your calls, didn't even…"

"Yes, I saw your hundred and twenty calls Steven…"

"They were only twelve."

"Still."

"I'm not joking about this Danny. Where were you? I called Rachel to find if she was with you and she had no idea…"

"You called Rachel?" Crap! Now she was going to be worried too. He better give her a call and assure her that he was safe and sound, just a nut job, apparently. "Look, Steve, I get you were worried…"

"He's not the only one Danny." Lou said, and by the look on everyone's faces, he spoke for everyone in the room.

"Yes, we were worried," Tani said, "But looking at you now, you look alright. I mean, not your usual alright, no hair product, or clean well pressed shirt…wait." She said freezing her hands in midair as she gave Danny a once over. "Come to think of it, you look like crap. You didn't even shave. Did you pass out at a bar? One-night stand? Ha! Walk of shame!" She said, pointing an accusing, teasing finger at Danny.

Danny glared at her, "Good to know you're having fun with this, unfortunately it's nothing that exciting, and don't let Rachel hear you say that. She'll think I'm not serious about getting her back."

"Overall, walk of shame or not, I'm really glad you're ok. You had us truly worried there for a sec." Tani said.

"Especially with a killer on the loose." Said Lou.

"A killer on the loose?"

"Yeah, we caught a case." Lou said. "We're just coming from the scene now. A former HPD officer, throat sliced execution style. So far, we have no idea why or by whom." Lou gave Danny the run down, Steve was still fuming.

Jerry proceeded to swipe the images on to the screen, the officer was in civilian clothing, lying on a beach somewhere, with his throat cleanly sliced. Danny didn't recognize the guy until Jerry punched in some numbers and his I.D face came on. Jerry continued to reiterate the Vic's identity, but Danny was already frozen in place. He knew that guy.

"No!"

"You know that guy?" Steve asked with interest.

"Know him. I worked with the guy for like three months at HPD. He was one of the guys who were nice to me when I was new to the Island. He…damn it, he was…he was one of the few friends to Meka and I. He moved to the mainland just three months after I came to the Island, three months before Meka was killed. He still had family here, he visited a few times and we had drinks now and then." Danny said with difficulty, feeling a rage towards whoever, it was who had murdered his friend.

"I'm sorry Danno." Steve said with sincerity.

Danny just sighed. "What else do we have?" He asked, laser focused on finding the killer who had killed his friend now, all that sleep walking thing and his planed talk with Steve all forgotten. Other things took precedence, like finding the sonofabitch who had done this. Damn it, this felt like Meka all over again.

"At the moment we have nothing, except the killer has an M.O." Jerry said.

"You think this could be a serial killer? A random kill and nothing to do with this guy being a cop or something?" Junior asked.

"At this moment we can't really say, the guy was in civilian clothing and had moved to the mainland a long time ago, but the Island does not forget. He might have old enemies still holding a grudge, that's one way of looking at it." Tani suggested.

"However, this…" Jerry zoomed in on the place beside the body, "…this seems like an M.O, if we're talking serial, that is." Jerry said.

"What are those, three colored money clips?" Danny asked curiously. "That could be anything, could have belonged to the vic, could have been randomly dropped by someone…anything. Those are too random and common and everywhere to be a clue."

"And girly." Steve said, annoyingly.

"I find it a little unusual that a serial killer would use office colored paper clips as an MO." Danny said, ignoring Steve's quip, he had always teased him about those color paper clips.

"Looks like you have something in common with our serial killer, everybody knows you like those girly colored paper clips Danny. Maybe he's into them too." Tani teased.

"They are pretty. Ok? And they hold my papers, which is the main point. Plus, Grace gave them to me, alright!" Danny defended as the others teased him, making light of the moment, which had become too heavy after finding out that Danny had lost yet another friend. "And…she makes sure to bring me a refill whenever she thinks I'm running out." He shrugged, "I've learned to just…go with it."

"Alright, back to business." Steve said. "We need to find any connections our vic might have had with anyone on the Island, family friends, enemies and Danny you're our only lead on this case. Since you knew the vic, you might help shed some light on his personal life."

"Yeah, I mean, I didn't know him for long but…anything I can do to get the son of a bitch who killed him." Danny said with renewed energy fueled by anger.

"It is an MO." Jerry mumbled. "You'll see, I'll prove my theory after the killer kills again."

"Kills again?" Junior asked, nonplussed.

"Well, if it is serial then they'll definitely kill again." Jerry said.

"Not on our watch they won't." Steve said, then turned to Danny. "Again, sorry about your friend, buddy. We'll find the bastard who did this; you can count on that." he said as the others echoed the same sentiment before going to do their assigned jobs to solve the case.

…

See you in a bit, i hope.