Aloha! Hey sorry I have been absent recently but I have my really important exams just now and I promised myself I wouldn't write until they were over but I just couldn't walk away from McDanno, especially after 419! Massive shout out to mirs13 who is a fantastic beta to me and these stories would be rubbish with out her! I also want to thank Blake for being there for me and to keep telling me to keep going! This one if for her! Mahalo and Keep Smiling :)
"All I am saying Danny, is that you could have tried harder to make things work with Amber." Steve turned the new Camaro into a parking space at HQ and got out, slamming the door shut, thinking about how he still preferred the silver one. It had been three weeks since they had admitted they loved each other after their close call in the collapsed building and they have both refused to mention it again.
Last week things with Danny and Amber had fallen apart. Danny had ended up spending the night at Steve's, unloading all his doubts and worries about the relationship, as he slowly but surely got drunk. The next morning he had woken up surrounded by a white fluffy duvet and the sound of waves gently crashing against the shore, but he wasn't in his bedroom, he was in Steve's! When he finally gathered up the courage, he went downstairs to see Steve camped out on the couch, clearly still sleeping with half of his freakishly giant body hanging off the side of his sofa letting out a soft grunt as Danny stepped on the creaky floorboard at the bottom of the staircase. Danny suddenly felt overwhelmingly guilty having unloaded all his problems on the emotionally stunted SEAL and then stealing his bed, not that he could remember how he got there in the first place.
When the knocked out SEAL finally awoke, Danny had managed to work his Star Trek coffee machine and taken a desperately needed shower to get rid of the overwhelming stench of alcohol. The downside to this –in his opinion- was that Steve did not own such a thing as hair gel or a decent comb for that matter, so his normally gorgeous, well-kept, golden locks were now sharp and sticking out in all directions. Steve on the other hand, couldn't help but smile fondly over the top of his coffee cup when being faced with that sight first thing in the morning.
"Well what can I say, it's like you said,I obviously don't have it in my genes to be happy." Danny shrugged as he walked into HQ, using his free hand – the one that wasn't holding the greasy bag of malasadas – to hold the glass door open for Steve to walk through, but he just stood there with a pout on his face and his muscled tattooed arms folded across his chest with his eyebrow slightly raised. "I thought we went over this babe, I told you how a door works right? Ok, let me show you again. You grab the handle…"
"Danny!" Steve cut him off before he could continue with another one of his over exaggerated walk throughs on how to use a door. He was using that look, the look that told Danny this wasn't a laughing matter, that he cared and this wasn't going to be dropped, so it would be better to just talk it through now before he made Danny talk about it against his will.
Sighing deeply, Danny released the door which slammed shut, leaving no interruptions to fill the eerie silence that had overtaken their normal married couple banter. "Look, I don't know ok, maybe I am just not a fit boyfriend. I have a busy job, a little girl who takes up my world and a maniac partner who tries to get me killed on a daily basis who I would be lost without, so I guess all the space in my heart has already been taken up." He shrugged, stuffing his hands back in his pockets after using them to prove his point. He avoided eye contact with Steve, but he did manage to notice and give appreciation to Steve's amazing impersonation of a goldfish.
Shaking his head back into the land of the living, Steve shuffled on his feet. "Danny...I had..." but of course it was just Steve's luck that Chin would come and stick his head out the door at that precise moment.
"Guys, you do know that we work on this side of the door right?" he said light heartedly as he hurried back into the office to the sound of a laughing Kalakaua. The Kalakaua is a very rare species now a days, last one of its kind, and if she wasn't careful, then they would become extinct quicker than expected when Steve got his hands on her for interrupting this.
Danny had started to walk back into the office when Steve grabbed his elbow, pulling him back with ease, leaning into his ear until Danny could feel his warm breath push off his skin and whispered delicately in his ear "This isn't over baby. I will get it out of you!"
Running his tongue along the inside of his open mouth before settling on a sly grin and a cocked eyebrow, pressing his chest against Steve's, Danny whispered back, "I look forward to seeing you try, McGarrett" before wiggling free and once again opening the door for Steve to walk through first, at least he got the hang of it this time.
"Boss and other boss, nice of you two to join us, not like we are on a case or anything are we Chin?" Kono asked sarcastically, turning to face her cousin who shook his head and put his hands on his hips in an almost pantomime like fashion, crumpling his striped shirt under his crushing knuckles.
"Well Kono, we are actually in the middle of trying to solve a triple homicide, but these two don't need to worry about it. We should leave them to the very important flirting that was going on outside the office, you know they can't focus without it!" laughed Chin, keeping his gorgeous smile plastered across his lips, as he started to tap away at the computer. Kono on the other hand, continued to play it up a bit more, until Danny snapped.
"If you guys want to keep your jobs, then I would suggest that you stop now. What do you think babe?" Danny asked, snuggling in against Steve's chest and wrapping his hands around his waist. It took Steve a second to get with the programme, but he finally caught on and wrapped his arms around Danny's shoulders pulling him close, kissing him on top of the head, giving Danny the big love struck eyes and saying sickeningly sweet, "If that's what you think sugar, then I am fine with it." Danny gladly returned the loving eyes and both doubling up on a big sigh like you see in the cheesy movies. Only to be interrupted by a cough from Kono.
"Technically only Steve can fire us…" she said fist bumping Chin who momentarily looked up at the sight that had unravelled in front of him and couldn't help but hide a sneaky little knowing smile. Pleased with herself and her quick wit that was now even challenging Danny, she picked up her takeaway coffee and took a long drink from it which she shortly spat back out.
"Oh come on cuz, not the computer!" Nagged Chin as he grabbed some tissues from the desk behind him, precisely for such an emergency, and started wiping away at the touch screen, sending files and photos over the many screens all around the office
"What did you say?" Trying to focus on the boys instead of the pain, Kono stole one of Chins many tissues to wipe away the hot coffee that was now burning her skin through her once white tank top.
"I said, he controls you, but I control him, in more ways than one!" Danny repeated, laughing at the similar expressions between Steve and Kono, both resembling a fish out of water. "I control his wallet as well as his work, Miss Kalakaua, and I would appreciate you keeping your dirty mind out of the office." Danny laughed as he untangled himself from Steve and picked up one of the spare coffee cups before offering a malasda to Chin, who graciously accepted. Meanwhile, Kono and Steve shared a questioning look before shrugging it off, yet Steve had never felt more empty, like there was now a Danny shaped hole missing from his heart, almost like a missing limb.
"Guys, we seriously do have a case. I would like you to meet our latest victim, Kalake Jones, native, mid-twenties, a nurse at Kuakini medical centre. We spoke to the head of her unit and they said she took great pleasure in her work and that all of the patients loved her. She was found in her apartment. A neighbour noticed her music playing loudly and went next door to ask her to turn it down, but when they got no response, they went to the Landlord. When they entered the apartment, they found her lying against her bed. There were signs of strangulation and asphyxiation. It looks like the killer wanted to make sure she was dead. Is anyone else getting Deja vu?" Chin turned back from the computer screens to look at Steve and Danny. Steve had his arms crossed over his rumpled black tee, squinting as he concentrated. Danny was leaning on his crossed- arms, one hand to his mouth, biting his nail and tapping his foot. These were all clear signs that the boys were thinking.
"What is this, murder number three for this guy?" Danny asked, straightening up, crossing one arm and using the other to wave about for emphasis. "Found all the same way, but on the bodies of Analena Simmons and Karissa Black, there were only partial prints. Hopefully this time we will get a hit and a match to all three bodies."
"Max text us a while ago saying he would Skype us with the autopsy and toxicology results soon. We should be expecting him any minute now." Kono finished, returning to the group after disappearing to her office to change her shirt, replacing the white tank top with an identical red one.
"Have you notified next of kin?" Steve asked as he walked around the side of the table and looked at the files spread across them, phone records, credit card details, nothing that didn't say hard working woman with little time for a social life – even though she did like the film Sahara; she had rented it four times in the last six weeks.
"Same as the rest, she had no next of kin. Her parents were killed in a car crash 3 years ago. She never married and was an only child. The kid basically had nothing apart from her job and by the sounds of things, she took pride in it." Danny finished, looking up from the file that he had just read all the data from. "I mean, what kind of sick bastard kills poor, defenceless women simply trying to get on in life?"
"What kind of sick bastard kills at all? Don't worry Danno, we will get this guy, you have my word!" Steve smiled at him, resting his hand on Danny's shoulder, trying to offer some form of reassurance when Chin interrupted him.
"There is one thing that I have noticed. I thought it was just a coincidence with the past two girls, but now I am not so sure." Chin stated before getting an approving look from Steve to continue, drawing the immediate attention of the rest of the team. Chin started taping at the screens, drawing up a blank note, grabbing the stylus from the side of the table and walking to the computer screen. "The names of the victims all have one thing in common…" Chin wrote up each name of the victims, Analena, Karissa and Kalake.
This is when it finally dawned on Steve. "They all mean Grace" he said, but without thinking. His gaze immediately went to Danny as he looked at the photos of the dead girls' bodies, his own noticeably shaking. Finally drawing in a harsh breath, Danny locked his eyes with Steve, clearly at a loss for words, which was unusual for Danny. He was just about to ask for any form of explanation, but was sadly interrupted when Max came bursting into the office, trench coat and hat pulled down. He turned around and locked the door to the offices and checked to make sure no one was coming.
"Hey Max, you going for the whole Inspector Gadget look? Because I must say, it's not going to well babe." Danny laughed, obviously trying to avoid talking about the bombshell that had been dropped on him. The team joined in with him, but Max's expression remained deadly serious. They all stopped laughing and understood that this was important, whatever it was. If it was important enough for Max to leave the company of his frozen buddies, then this was not a laughing matter.
There was not even a hello before Max started tapping wildly at the computer. Steve could see Chin tense, but he couldn't even manage a smile as all the other members of Five-0 started to quiz Max as to what was wrong. Finally Kono grabbed his arm and demanded to know what was going on.
"I dusted the body of Miss Jones this morning and I got several identifiable prints. I ran them through the database against the partials from the other victims. At first I thought there was a fault in the system when the results came up, but then I ran a hair that I found at the crime scene and I got the same hit. There is no mistake! The person these prints belong to is your killer," Max exclaimed wrestling from Kono's grip and tapping at the screen once again before swiping up the hit to the main screen. "The finger prints and the hair belong to you, Detective Williams…"