Blood In The Water
By Morganperidot
1
"No way," Danny Williams said, exasperated for the thousandth time since he'd met Steve McGarrett and gotten roped into his crazy world.
"Yes," Steve said.
"Seriously?" Danny said. "You seriously think…"
"Let it go," Steve said. "We have…"
"No, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me…"
Steve looked him in the eye. "Any day of the week, any week of the month, any month of year," he said.
"OK, you're on," Danny said.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," the voice of a female stranger chimed in. Both men turned to look at the unexpected intruder standing in the doorway of the central area of Five-0's headquarters. She was a tall woman, thin but sturdy looking, wearing a dark red blouse that hugged her curves and ended just over the top of a pair of blue jeans. On her feet were red high heel shoes.
"Can I help you with something?" Danny asked, forgetting his conversation with Steve entirely at the sight of her face: perfect skin, features, and brown eyes framed by a long, thick mane of auburn hair. "Miss…"
"Deputy US Marshal Diana Moore," she said.
Steve walked over to her and held out his hand; Moore grasped it firmly. "Deputy Marshal, I'm…"
"I know who you are Lieutenant Commander," Moore said coolly.
"I'm Detective Danny Williams," Danny said. "I know it doesn't sound as cool as Deputy Marshal or Lieutenant Commander but…"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Detective," Moore said, she walked past Steve and took Danny's hand. "I'm certain that you are quite good at what you do."
"Yes, I am quite good," Danny said, and was rewarded with a bright smile from Moore. "Look, if you need someone to…"
"Danny, give me a minute with the Deputy Marshal," Steve said, his tone serious.
Danny looked at him. "What's going on here?" he asked.
"Danny, give me a minute," Steve said, with a hint of the command that he rarely exercised within Five-0 in his voice.
"Sure, no problem," Danny said. "I'll just go play in the street."
He walked out of the room, and Moore gave it almost a full minute before she spoke, taking that time to size up McGarrett, who she knew about only from his reputation. She had a feeling there was much more to this man than she had heard. "So you know why I'm here," she said.
"I know you wasted a trip," Steve said. "I'm not going to surrender jurisdiction."
"You seem to forget you're no longer a federal employee, McGarrett," Moore said. "And that the feds always win."
Steve smiled humorlessly. "I don't know you," he said, "but I doubt you believe that." He turned to the computer system and threw some images up on the screen. "Patrick Byers," he said, "federal fugitive and local murder suspect." He threw two more images on the screen, photos of the two local victims, a man and his pregnant wife – both young, attractive, and brutally killed.
Moore stepped closer and studied the gruesome pictures in silence for a moment before speaking. "His original crime…"
"Was killing a teenage girl," Steve finished for her, "and he killed a guard in his recent escape. That guard had two young children."
"So, you understand the situation," Moore said. She found herself standing much closer to McGarrett than she had intended, and it was hard for her to ignore the restrained strength that flowed from him like magnetic waves. She took a step away.
Steve turned to her with an icy gaze that froze her in her tracks. "I'm taking him down," he said quietly.
"You don't have the resources…"
"I have what I need," Steve said.
"That may be true, but he's mine," Moore said firmly.
There was a long, taut moment of tension, and finally Steve said, "You don't know Hawaii."
"I know what I need to," Moore said, but she had let her tone soften, because she knew he was right. It wouldn't hurt to have someone who knew Hawaii in on this. And she sensed that he could be an asset in more ways that one.
"Hawaii isn't like the mainland," Steve said. "It's a different mindset, different ways and places to disappear. You aren't going to find this man here, and you don't want to lose him because of that."
Moore took a few steps away and made a show of thinking it over, but that wasn't really the way she worked. She trusted her instincts, and as soon as she had engaged in the interaction with McGarrett she had known that his cooperation would be more valuable to her than trying to push the issue of federal versus state jurisdiction. "OK, here's the situation," she said. "You collaborate with my team as a consultant…"
"No," Steve said.
"No?" Moore replied.
"We work the investigations in tandem," Steve said.
"We can't have two investigations…"
"Then we don't need yours," Steve said.
Moore absorbed the blow and met it with a smile. "Do you think I came here without any back-up?" she asked, referring, as she knew he would understand, to political clout, not her team, though they would be arriving shortly.
"No," Steve said, "but I know how the feds work, and I know how my people work. In a throw down I'll take my people any day."
"You may know how the feds work," Moore said, "but you don't know how I work."
"I know you have a 100% recovery rate," Steve said. "I know you were hand-picked out of Harvard, and that you are known as one of the most brilliant minds in the US Marshal's Service. If I didn't know those things I wouldn't have spent the time discussing this. I would be out in the field finding this guy."
Moore glanced back at the screen where the couple's bodies and Byers' face were still illuminated. Then she looked back at Steve. "I will expect full disclosure of operations," she said, "and I will require that there be no subterfuge. If those two conditions are not met, I will shut down your operation." She didn't wait to hear his agreement, because she didn't expect to receive it. Instead she headed to the door, stopping briefly before going outside. "I'll be in contact," she said.
"Deputy Marshal," Steve said by way of good-bye, though not disrespectfully, and she headed out of the building, to where Danny was leaning against her car.
"Did you two get your business all worked out?" he asked, continuing to check her out as he opened the driver's side door of her car.
"You could say that, Detective," Moore said. "Have a nice day." She closed the door and started the car.
"You too," Danny said, knowing he would be seeing a lot more of her in the days to come, and wondering what that would mean for Five-0.
2
Steve blew out a breath and shut off the computer screen. He knew he had to get to work, but he needed to a moment to process what he was thinking and feeling. His heart was pounding, and he knew that was due to more than just the confrontation with Moore and her final ultimatums. Something about Moore had clicked with him internally in a way that no woman had in a long time. It was more than just her obvious beauty, brains, and forceful personality, though he couldn't have said what it was.
Steve poured himself a cup of coffee, but what he really needed was a cold shower. He drank the coffee and shook his head to clear it. It wasn't the time to get sidetracked. There was work to be done, and Five-0 was the group to do it.