Danny sat, propped up by pillows, on his sofa bed. He looked to his right and saw Steve sleeping soundly. A small smile formed on Danny's face before it was gone in an instant. He looked at the clock on the wall and prayed that the call wouldn't come.
He and Steve had been doing this thing or friends-with-benefits thing for a while now. But here's the thing, Steve was also seeing Catherine. At first, Danny was cool with it. It started out as a way to let off steam after a particularly stressful case, and then it moved to after every case. And it was great. Until the day Danny made the stupid mistake of falling in love with his crazy ass SEAL of a partner.
Danny was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of Steve's phone ringing. His heart broke a little more when Steve answered it and he knew that it was her. Danny watched as Steve got up and started to get dressed.
"Do you really have to go? You could stay a little longer." he asked.
Steve paused, his shirt in his hands, and looked over at Danny. "I wish I could, but Cath and I have dinner plans. Maybe next time." he put his shirt on and then his shoes.
Danny gave a weak smile and looked down at his hands folded in his lap. "Yeah, next time." he could feel the tears starting to well up in his eyes. He blinked his eyes rapidly to get rid of them.
Danny waited until he heard the door close before he looked up. He looked at the empty room and sighed heavily. He wiped his hands over his face and then carded them through his hair.
'How did I let myself get here?' he thought to himself. He thumped his head back against the mound of pillows behind him. He still had his hands fisted in his hair as he finally let the tears fall.
Danny wiped his face after a few minutes and came up with a plan.
"I have to make Steve see that I'm the better choice. I just have to find the right time to tell him." he told himself. He spent most of the night thinking through his plan before he finally fell asleep.
The next day, Danny walked into HQ, tired and moody, and in need of coffee. With coffee in hand, Danny went to his office to try to catch up on the paperwork he'd been putting off. After a while, he heard footsteps and voices enter HQ and Danny knew it was the rest of the team.
He was barely half-way through his paperwork when Steve popped his head into Danny's office.
"Yo Danno. We got a case." Steve left and rejoined the rest of the team.
Danny put down his pen and wiped his eyes and joined the rest of the team.
"What have we got?" he inquired once he joined the team around the computer table.
Chin put up a picture of a male suspended from the ceiling. "Murder. A couple of kids were messing around at an abandoned warehouse and found this."
Danny winced when he saw their vic. He wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy. "Do we have an ID?"
Kono pushed a few buttons and brought up a driver's license. "His name is Shawn Mackelroy. He's lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. His company transferred him here to run the Hawaiian branch. He's 37 and works as an investment banker. I did some digging and it seems that Mr. Mackelroy has been skimming funds from his clients for years."
Danny gave a low whistle and ran a hand over his face. "Has anyone been to the crime scene yet?"
Chin shook his head. "Just HPD and the crime unit. Max is on his way now."
Steve nodded and started to head toward the door. "Good work guys. Let's head over and see what we can dig up."
They split up to their cars and drove to the abandoned warehouse. They arrived as the crime scene unit was just finishing up.
Chin and Kono headed over to talk with the kids while Steve and Danny headed into the warehouse. They walked over to Max, who was examining the body.
"Hey Max. What can you tell us?" Steve asked
Max looked up at Steve. "It seems that the victim suffered copious amounts of abuse and blood loss."
"Any idea on the cause of death?" Danny inquired.
Max looked over at Danny. "My initial thought would be blood loss, but I will know more when I get back to my lab."
"Alright, thanks Max." Steve turned around and headed back out, Danny following close behind.
"What kind of sicko does that to a person? That's just—-that was awful. I have never seen something like this in all my years as a cop." Danny said as he and Steve headed out.
"I don't know, but we're gonna find this guy. And when we do, he'll be going away for a long time." Steve replied.
They met up with Chin and Kono. "Did you get anything from the kids?" Steve asked.
Kono shook her head. "Not much. They arrived here and said that it was empty."
Steve sighed. "Alright. Let's get back to HQ and see if we can find out why our vic was targeted."
The team went back to their respective cars and headed back. Danny was unusually quiet on the way back and that worried Steve. A quiet Danno was never good.
Steve quickly glanced at Danny. "Hey, you alright partner?"
Danny was pulled out of his thoughts by Steve's question. "Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm good. I was just thinking."
Steve looked back at Danny, not watching the road as usual, and noticed that something about his partner was off. He'd never known Danny to stay this quiet. It was unnerving and Steve didn't like it.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
Danny shook his head. "Not at this present moment."
Now Steve knew something was up with Danny. Danny always talked about whatever was on his mind. "Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Danny looked over at Steve and felt a pang in his chest at the concern in the other man's eyes. How many times has Catherine seen that look? How much of Steve does Catherine know about? He looked away from Steve and looked back out the window. "I'm sure and I know. I'm just trying to work through some stuff that's all."
Steve felt hurt that his partner wouldn't look at him. Steve turned his attention back to the road but he couldn't stop worrying about his partner. 'Maybe I'll go to Danny's later and talk to him then.' he told himself.
The ride back to HQ continued in silence as both men were lost in their thoughts. Steve parked the Camaro in its normal spot; Danny was out of the car before Steve had the chance to turn off the engine.
Steve shut off the car and watched as Danny fled into the building. He got out of the car and was joined by Chin and Kono.
"What's up with him?" Kono asked.
Steve shook his head. "I don't have the slightest clue."