Poloke

by TheDogo

There may be no greater burden than the taking of a life, especially the life of a child. But Danny had done the right thing when he'd pulled the trigger.

Disclaimer: Do not own Hawaii Five-0. No copyright infringement intended.

Author's Note: Warm thanks to praemonitus praemunitus and Wenwalke for putting up with this one. This was a bugger for the rookie to get on the page! And Happy Birthday, Phoebes! Isn't life grand :)

Enjoy!

Poloke - Broken

"Danny, you have to let go now."

They'd already gotten the all clear, the warehouse was secure. Kono's eyes welled with tears as she watched her teammate murmur into the girl's filthy hair. Their detective was slumped on his knees, rocking the young shooter against him. She knew he hadn't heard her, hadn't registered her hand placed on his shoulder, wouldn't feel the pain lancing through his knee because he had been kneeling too long.

Her first thought had been that the girl hadn't been hit. That Danny had missed. But as she'd gotten closer, firearm still ready, she'd realized that she'd been wrong. Danny was covered in blood, the pale blue sleeves of his dress shirt now a dark crimson, right along with his hands. And she knew, without even seeing the entry or exit wound, that there was way too much blood for someone that young to survive. Danny must have known that too, but that hadn't stopped him from scooping the young girl up from the cold of the concrete. A good 10 minutes later and he hadn't let go, but before Kono actually went to shake him, get him to pay attention to her, she thought better of it and pressed her index finger against her com link as she stood up.

"Steve …"

She'd already kicked the discharged High Point C9 aside. The semi-automatic handgun was a favorite of the local youth gang, the Barcadas.

"Yeah, Kono, go ahead."

"I need you over here, boss. NW corner, as soon as you can manage it."

The remainder of their team was on the other side of the dilapidated warehouse, coordinating arrests and staging teams for clean-up or evidence gathering.

"I'll send Chin your way now."

"No, you too, boss. You need to get here."

There was a hesitation, but no further questions.

"On it."

Steve would've known she wouldn't have asked for him if the situation didn't warrant it. She also knew her voice was likely a dead giveaway. And since their detective hadn't been heard on coms since the shooting stopped, her teammates had probably already made the connection. Her request for Steve was about Danny. And anything that related to Danny and kids, required Steve.

Kono kept hovering, aware that the attention around the detective and the girl held no accusation from HPD or SWAT. They'd all witnessed the same scene, saw the same outcome. Whoever this girl was, no matter how old she turned out to be, she had pulled a gun on law enforcement and hadn't been afraid to pull the trigger, if only once. The stupid thing was, if it had been Steve, Kono, Chin, or Lou the young shooter had sighted on, she didn't think Danny would be struggling with his split second decision. Yeah, well, okay, so maybe he would be, but he certainly wouldn't have hesitated like he had. Kono couldn't recall a time where she'd seen their detective falter in taking out a threat, with the exception of today. He'd given this kid just enough time to pull off a shot, had actually flinched at the sound, and then fired in return. One shot from his weapon and it had been over.

Flinched. Kono frowned and then replayed the scene again. Danny had flinched. Danny never flinched at the sound of a gunshot. Ducked yes, flinched, no. He was Steve McGarrett's partner for Christ sakes. If you listened overly long to the detective, he'd make you believe that he was fired upon or blown up, pretty much, daily, but he was no coward.

"Shit!" She knelt back down beside her teammate, trying not to startle him. "Danny? Hey, Danny, you okay?" When she got no response, she reached out to touch his shoulder, this time shaking him slightly. Her initial worry about startling him could be damned. As his head began to raise up, she leant over, looking up from below his gaze to encourage him. What she saw there did nothing to reassure her.

Danny couldn't focus on her, his eyes watery and sluggish. She leant in a bit more. Her friend's irises had been displaced by his pupils.

"Damn it, Danny!" She placed her hands on top of his, but his grip tightened, even though his fingers were cold and clammy. And he wouldn't let her pry them open, no matter how hard she tried. So she pressed her com link again.

"Steve, we need an EMT here." Even though she couldn't see a wound on him, there had to be one. There was too much blood. She thought it had just been the girl's, but now, she was sure she'd been wrong. Her boss was going to blow a gasket.

"Got it covered, Kono. What's going on?" That had been Lou who had answered. Good, that meant Steve and Chin were on their way.

"I'm not sure yet. Something's going on with Danny."

"Alright, EMTs are hoofing it over. Steve and Chin should be there about now."

"KONO!" Steve's voice that time, but both he and her cousin came into view. They were sprinting.

"Yeah, they're here. Thanks, Lou." She raised her hand in acknowledgement then refocused on her friend.

Steve slid to his knees just beside her, his gaze locked onto Danny.

"What happened?"

It wasn't a question about the juvenile, it was a question about Danny. Steve hadn't taken his eyes off his partner, but he'd directed his voice at Kono, right about the same time they'd all noticed their detective was shaking.

"I think he's been hit, boss, but he won't let me look. I can't get him to let go of her." She'd kept her reply to a bare minimum. The justifiable shooting report could come later.

Steve nodded, scooting on his knees to get closer before he reached out, touching Danny's shoulder.

"Hey, Danno? You think you can let Chin take her now? I want to take a look at you, buddy." Steve glanced over, signaling her cousin to come closer.

There was no response from Danny though, other than their blond fisting the young girl's shirt between his fingers. Kono kept her hand on his thigh, not willing to lose contact.

"Yeah, come on Danny, come on, I've got her now. I'll take good care of her, you know that." Chin had moved to the front of Danny as Steve shuffled, still on his knees, behind him, ready to steady his partner once the girl was removed. "Let her go, brah, I'll take her." Chin worked at peeling away Danny's fingers, his gloves colored red by the time he'd gotten his friend's fists to unclench. "That's it, I've got her. Let her go, brah."

As Kono watched her teammates struggle to relieve Danny of his burden, she found herself wondering if her friend thought that he had somehow failed the young girl. But then, she caught herself, because—how stupid could she be—of course he did. This was Danny she was thinking about. Danny, the man that protected himself from the job and the hurts of the world behind his bluster and swagger. Besides, she remembered what he'd told her, "When you wear the badge, Kalakaua, life becomes more precious." So what good cop wouldn't feel some level of failure after the taking of a life, even if the taking had been justified? And that Danny had just killed someone who was around the same age as his daughter wasn't lost on her, either. So maybe what Danny thought he held in his arms wasn't really their shooter, but was the image of Grace. Grace, who would always be Danny's little Monkey and represented so much life yet to live and so much potential.

Except, that life had been ended, and Danny had been the one who pulled the trigger.

Kono's thoughts almost came to a stuttered stop. Her teammate was shaking so hard now it made her bones hurt just to watch him.

"No, come on, Danny, don't do this."

Kono swallowed in a bid to obliterate the lump in her throat that was threatening to choke her. She looked down at her hands. This time, her tears overflowed as her boss murmured encouragements that clearly, their mainlander, wasn't hearing. Danny seemed so lost that her heart began to ache until his body finally intervened. He sagged against Steve when his arms fell to his sides as if defeated. She moved to catch hold of his limp fingers before she looked up. Chin caught her attention. Her cousin had managed to lift the young girl, but was clearly picking up on her anguish.

"He'll be okay, now, Steve's got him," he whispered.

She knew her cousin believed in what he'd said, could see it in his gaze. So she nodded, quickly wiping at the tears that slowly trailed down her cheeks.

There may be no greater burden than the taking of a life, especially the life of a child. But Danny had done the right thing when he'd pulled the trigger. And at some point, she'd make him believe that. They all would.

H50

"Come on Danno, let me see," Steve whispered. They'd finally gotten his partner settled onto his back, his tac vest removed. "You still with me?" Danny had been dully tracking him, but only Steve could see the raw pain settling across his friend's haggard features.

"She didn't … I had … had no choice …"

"I know that … just relax."

Steve's eyebrows were drawn together, his focus on stabilizing his partner till the EMTs got there. He'd taken off his outer shirt and pressed it against Danny's shoulder wound, hard. The damn thing wouldn't stop bleeding. And the harder he pressed, the more his partner's fingers clawed across the concrete, seemingly searching for something to ground him, hold him to consciousness. But there was nothing Steve could do to keep their detective with them, because he needed both hands to apply enough pressure to slow down the bleeding. Leave it to Danny to have the world's most stubborn, god damn, freaking bleeder.

"Kono, lift his feet up. Put 'em on your lap." Steve's commands were getting more clipped, his irises darkening.

"She would've …"

"Yeah, I know, Danny. You did what you had to." Another clipped sentence as Steve looked around for the EMTs or Chin or Lou. Chin had taken off somewhere with the shooter in his arms. SWAT and HPD were still busy gathering evidence, doing their jobs. And Steve wouldn't trust anyone else but his team to help him with Danny.

"Where the hell are they?"

"I killed her … I killed a kid, Steven." Danny's tone was a strangled whisper.

"Yeah, Danno, I know you did." Steve nodded, still looking around, until he finally caught sight of the two EMTs jogging towards him.

"I should've …"

"Danny, shut up already would you! I'm trying to keep you from bleeding out here. There wasn't anything you could have done differently."

The funny thing was, Steve had no idea what had gone down here, but he didn't need to know. Because Danny, the man he called his partner, his best friend, would've eaten a bullet to prevent the death of a juvenile, even if said kid was caught up in the Barcadas and moving weapons like they were part of a junior high bake sale.

"Steve!" Kono was glaring at him.

Steve had taken a bloodied hand off Danny's shoulder to wave angrily at the med techs to hurry. When he glanced back at his partner, he blew out a breath, shoved his frustration into a neat little box and pressed down harder against the wound. Danny groaned.

"Sorry! Sorry, okay? I'm just …" Steve inhaled sharply, then exhaled … "Sorry. Could you just shut up and stay awake …" His voice dropped an entire octave. He hated the fact that he sounded as if he was angry, angry at his partner. Because in reality, he was scared shitless he was going to lose his best friend.

Grateful for the distraction, Steve was forced to shuffle further up by Danny's shoulder to give the medics some room.

"EMTs are here. Stay awake, alright?" His partner was still watching him, Danny's lids seemingly heavier by the minute, but they stayed open because he had asked him. Once Steve had finally been pulled off from applying pressure, he bent over to grasp his partner's clenching and unclenching fist.

"I'm sorry, Danno, okay? But you've got to take it easy now, focus on breathing."

Danny had an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth, but the EMTs had been batting the man's hands away from it from the moment they'd placed it on him. Steve frowned when his friend went after it again.

"No, stop it, keep that on there, it's helping."

Steve's frustration and anger wasn't just about Danny getting hit, although that was all kinds of fucked up on its own. No, his partner had been forced to shoot a kid, every law enforcement officer's worst nightmare, especially Danny's. And not only had he been forced to kill a kid, as it turns out, she wasn't just any kid, but a member of the Barcadas. An important member of the Barcadas, if the tattoos running up and down her forearms were anything to go by.

Danny's hand reached one more time for the oxygen mask. Steve began shaking his head before his partner even had the opportunity to push it off or open his mouth.

"Nope, no talking, Daniel. Not yet. We can talk about it after we get you taken care of. What you think you need to tell me, it'll keep, okay?" Steve rolled his eyes, then. Because Danny had to have known Steve wasn't asking a question. Still, his friend was groaning as if in protest, slowly moving his head from side to side like he had something to say.

"Hey, I need you to listen to me." Steve waited until Danny gave him his undivided attention again. "You need to let it go. I don't even have to ask Kono what happened or anyone else here. I already know you did what you had to." Still making sure that his partner was tracking his words, he continued. "I'm not sorry you shot her, Danny. Cause that bullet hole in your shoulder says she gave you no choice."

Steve locked gazes with his partner, because Danny's expression conveyed that a death by his own hand wasn't something he would ever be able to let go of. So Steve nodded, almost imperceptibly, because he'd give his partner that one. He placed his hand on Danny's shoulder then, feeling the vibrations running through his torso as his friend drew in another breath.

"No, Danny. Save it for now. I mean it. Just concentrate on staying awake till the docs take a look at you."

"Commander, we're ready to move so we can transport."

"Yeah, okay." Steve nodded gratefully and managed a weary half-smile for the tattooed EMT before turning to Kono.

"Stay here with Chin and Lou. Make sure everyone involved understands their job. No mistakes on this one. Once you're sure everyone's lined out, meet me at Queens. We can go over what happened then."

After they'd lifted his partner onto the gurney, Steve seized Kono's forearm and eyed her intently before they began to move.

"Thank you for helping Danny." He squeezed his fingers before letting go. The sentiment seemed painfully inadequate to him.

"Just take good care of him, boss."

Steve grinned, the first one of the day and hopefully not the last, because he understood the hidden warning behind Kono's message.

"You know I will."

H50

The ride to Queens couldn't have been fast enough. Even though the EMTs had managed to stabilize his partner, Steve was worried. Danny had gotten quiet, stopped moving, though he'd not gone back on his word to stay awake. As a matter of fact, his friend hadn't taken his eyes off him, the emotions behind the stare almost becoming unnerving. Steve eventually found himself bent over, his forehead pressed against his partner's temple, whispering in his ear.

"Don't you dare blame yourself, Danny. The only ones to blame are the sick fucks that drew her into the gang and put a gun in her hand. You know that." Shielded for one moment from the EMT, Steve had thought his partner would allow the well of unshed tears to release. Danny had emotionally been all over the place, though no one would've been able to tell, except for Steve. He knew his partner, and only needed a touch or a glance to check in on him.

"Look, I know you're not fine, and I don't expect you to be. But you know I'm right. Her death isn't your fault." He raised up a bit, dropping his gaze to his partner's blood soaked clothing before he returned to the blue between the slits staring back at him.

"Please ..." Steve leaned back in again, whispering in a tone that was close to approaching desperation. "Please, Danno, trust me. You've got to believe me and let it go for now." Danny turned his head towards him, so that through their pressed together foreheads, Steve finally felt his partner nod. His own body eased, if only slightly, before he laid a hand on Danny's forearm and tried to stroke away the tension he still found there. "It'll be okay, Danno. It will."

Minutes later, the ambulance rolled into the trauma bay at Queens. Steve managed to stay with his partner, threatening, just this side of bodily injury, anyone who thought of demanding otherwise. In his mind, this wasn't about his overprotectiveness, this was about the Barcadas, and their reputation for retribution. It didn't matter that his partner was a cop or Five-0. The gang would go after Danny anyway. That meant Steve and his team wouldn't allow their detective out of their sight if they could help it.

The medical team had gotten Danny prepped for surgery, obviously barring Steve's attempt to move past the OR's double doors. Steve eyed the doc warily, and then nodded, finally gathering the resolve to leave his partner's side. He gently prized his fingers out of Danny's.

"I'm letting go now," he whispered, chafing Danny's knuckles with his thumb. He smoothed a crease in the man's hospital gown without noticing he was doing it. "They're taking you in for surgery to get that bullet out of your shoulder. You'll be in good hands, buddy."

Danny blinked at him, a sure sign he was struggling to comprehend, so Steve bent closer.

"I'm not leaving, Danno. I'll be waiting right here."

H50

"How's he doing?" Lou asked.

Kono had met up with her teammates at the South end of the warehouse, but she was distracted, eyeing the body bags that Max was carrying towards them, mainly the one that looked painfully small.

"Steve or Danny?" She was still watching Max, only briefly catching Lou's raised eyebrow.

Someone, likely Chin, since he was still over there, had laid out their shooter amongst the other casualties of the raid. There were four dead, only one of them a kid and there'd been a few injuries—none to their side other than Danny—so overall, it was a pretty successful and well-coordinated effort.

"Fair enough, both then."

Kono nodded.

"The boss man's pissed. More upset about Danny I think than anything else. And Danny …" Kono shivered as she watched Max zip up the smaller bag, the girl's face disappearing under the black plastic. "… he took one to the shoulder. The EMTs had him stabilized before they even transported him."

"I don't think that's what Lou was asking." Chin had joined them without her noticing.

"Yeah, I know, but honestly, Chin? I'm not sure." Kono wrenched her gaze away from Max and focused on her cousin. "Danny was really quiet for a while after you got the girl away from him." Kono indicated towards Max and the black bags with her head. "And when Danny started mumbling, well, Steve kind of lost it. I get Steve was worried about him, I do. But you could see it in Danny's eyes, the guilt and the failure, none of which, in my opinion, should have been there." Kono stood up straighter and squared her shoulders. "She drew on him first, Chin, got a shot off because Danny hesitated when he saw how young she was. She was ready to fire on all of us again when he finally took her out. It was a justifiable shooting. There's plenty of law enforcement witnesses to testify to that."

"Hey, you don't have to convince me." Chin raised his hands up to the height of his shoulders.

"Or me." Lou was watching Max finish up with the rest of the bodies.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry." Kono followed Lou's gaze. "Did you notice the tats on her forearms?" She'd put the question out there for either man to answer.

"Yeah, but what I don't get is why the Barcadas? They're a youth gang, not like the Grajales. Ceballos, who's the head of the Grajales …" Chin added for Lou's sake, "runs Special Forces defectors and deals primarily with drugs, extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking. They've never been particularly interested in guns before."

"So maybe this isn't about the guns then," Lou said.

Chin cocked his head before indicating he was heading over to help Max load the small bag onto the gurney.

"Maybe," he threw over his shoulder as he began to walk away. "But this warehouse is stacked to the rafters with them, so if it's not about the guns, what's it about then?"

H50

"Commander McGarrett! Can you tell us if Detective Williams will be placed on administrative leave pending the investigation of …?"

"Commander McGarrett!"

"Commander McGarrett!"

"Care to comment on your statement that you're not sorry your partner, Detective Daniel Williams, shot and killed a young girl …"

Steve almost stutter stepped on that one, but Chin's hand between his shoulder blades kept him moving. Both men pushed their way through the throngs of press hovering outside of Queens Medical Center, not waiting for the reporters to pull their microphones back when they clambered into the Silverado and slammed the doors on their faces.

Steve had gotten a call from the Governor, demanding his presence. Chin had come along to keep his boss from saying something stupid to the higher up official who had inadvertently pulled the SEAL away from his partner. Kono and Lou had agreed to stay at the hospital. Danny was still in surgery and it wasn't like Steve had needed to twist their arms to be there. All of them were worried. As the truck peeled out of the parking lot, leaving the smell of burnt rubber behind them, Steve glanced over at his teammate.

"What the hell was that about, Chin?"

"I don't know, but I'm guessing we're about to find out."

H50

Memories of Grace's laughter, her love, their time together and a thousand other brief glimpses washed through him in a flood. The pleasant scenes and sounds became shadows and hollow echoes, then melted away. In their place, the pale face of the young shooter, the images of her hatred, pain and then terror, flashed through his mind. And he didn't try to stop them. He washed himself in the detail of it all and when the guilt of taking a life flared up from a pit deep inside him, he invoked it heedlessly, allowed it to come screaming forth. Because he deserved it, the guilt and the pain. In his mind, he added the shadowed figure of himself, the punch of a bullet, the caress of a trigger, standing over the young girl's body, holding his gun while his hands were dripping red. He held the sight of the bloodstains on his clothing and all the other images before him, twisting them, inspecting them, drinking them into his soul. And when the pictures were complete, he had his answers. He remembered what had happen, why the girl had died. And until now, that was all he'd ever needed—answers and the truth. In his whole life, he'd never gone beyond those simple questions.

But in one, white-hot instant, that had changed. Because whoever that young girl was, she shouldn't have been there. And Danny intended to find out why she was.

He reached out then, curled his fingers within the bedsheets, gripping them tighter and tighter until his knuckles were white. The muscles of his jaw flexed. His breathing came fast and heavy. He heard nothing else of what was around him but the heaving of his chest, felt only the burning hurt of his grief, and then the slow rise of his anger.

"She shouldn't have been there."

"Danny." Steve's voice was gentle, but it punched through his reverie. "Calm down."

Some part of Danny, deep in the back of his mind, kept warning him, telling him to regain control. But he ignored the warning, his teeth grinding harder.

"She was just a kid."

"Danny," Steve repeated calmly, "it's alright. Relax."

Danny realized he was panting and he couldn't remember the last time he found it this difficult to breathe. So he loosened his hand from the bedding as something outside of him—no, not something, Steve—demanded he regain control. He allowed himself to lay there while he uncoiled, feeling his muscles relax until he felt Steve's hand upon his forehead. And then he peeled eyelids that felt as if they were gooey and crusted, open.

"Steve?"

He looked up into his partner's calm, undisturbed features. Steve was studying him, seemingly assessing him with the slightest hint of a smile fixed at the corners of his mouth. Until Danny blew it...

"I killed a kid … Grace's age … and I don't know …Why was she there?"

Steve's fingers flexed against Danny's forearm and his partner glowered at him, leaning in closer across the bedrail.

"Let it go, Daniel."

Steve cut him off when he went to open his mouth again, grabbed at his hand that was doing a lame imitation of a gesture. He tried not to close his eyes, but talking had sapped his strength, so his eyelids drooped.

"It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. There's only one thing that really matters: you shot her and you're alive because of it." Steve was giving him the 'don't argue with me, Daniel' look. "Does it matter how old she was? No. Would she be alive if you'd known why she was there? No. She shot at you first, Danny, and you defended yourself. That's all that matters."

"It's not … that simple…." His eyelids closed as he felt a thumb trace down between his brows and back across his forehead. Soon, the blackness pulled him back in, but not before he heard …

"Nothing's ever simple with you, Danno ... nothing ever is. Just go to sleep, buddy."

H50

Steve pushed his sleeves up his arms while he watched Danny. His face was pulled tight by hard wrinkles and determination as he leaned forward a little, only partially listening to his teammate.

"I don't understand, boss. It was a textbook shooting. A justifiable homicide. There's plenty of witnesses, so why the administrative leave and investigation?" Kono whispered.

Steve leaned back in the chair, stopping his hands from unconsciously checking Danny's sling for the umpteenth time. He shook his head, his eyes still on his partner.

"Proper procedure. The Governor's getting pressure because of the girl's age. And there was a leak. Someone from the raid talked, gave the papers a quote saying I wasn't sorry Danny killed her. It'll be out by morning. Nothing the Governor can do about it. Danny's name will be released at the same time."

"Wait, that's taking what you said completely out of context!"

Kono had raised her voice, causing his partner to stir again. Pain and dizziness had been making Danny only dimly aware, but he'd kept complaining his vision spun when he tried to open his eyes. Even with meds, his partner was convinced that the room continued to roll and tilt, clutching at the mattress as if to keep from being flung off of it.

Steve came forward against the bed rail in a blink. He'd expected that would be Kono's reaction.

"Maybe, but what they print won't be far from the truth. I made that statement and I'd make it again. But right now I'm more concerned with who leaked the information and why. Chin's looking into everyone who was on scene, even ancillary personnel."

Kono's brow furrowed.

"Wait, you mean like the EMTs?"

Steve nodded, his fist clenching on the railing. His face was red with anger and his eyes flashed.

"Yep. I hadn't paid much attention at the time, but after our meeting with the Governor, Chin mentioned the Grajales, Ceballos and the Barcadas. That he wanted to work on the connections, try to find out why that girl was there, since Danny keeps asking. When he brought up her tattoos I remembered. One of the EMTs had the same tat on his forearm that our shooter did. I caught it peeking out from under his sleeve when he pushed it up to work on Danny."

"So we should bring him in and …"

Steve cut her off.

"No. We keep digging—quietly— and let the shooting investigation run its course. There's no love lost between us and IA, I'll grant you that. But there were plenty of other officers there, like you said. Danny will understand that it's procedure." Kono rolled her eyes at him. "Look, he'll get it. Our jobs are to make sure that we do everything within our power to protect Danny and Grace from the press. This is likely to get ugly now that the media's gotten a hold of it."

The door that had held back Steve's anger was slowly opening, but he couldn't afford that. None of them could. What he'd said at the raid still applied. He wouldn't apologize for the statement and the Governor knew it. Still, he had to acknowledge that a career's worth of hard work and Danny's integrity was about to get put under a microscope and then drug through the mud. All because the wall of reason containing Steve's emotions had burned away in a flash at the knowledge that his partner had been injured. Steve's ability to think clearly in that moment had become dross in a cauldron of need, the need to protect his partner. And now, Danny would be the one to pay for it.

"Danny and Grace, they're the priority," Steve whispered.

H50

They would've succeeded, Danny supposed, broken him down into finely tempered glass to be scattered across the steps of the Iolani Palace, had it not been for his 'ohana. That could have been him, but it wasn't. Maybe they'd expected him to be just a reflection of what he'd once been, a good cop and a father. But they'd been wrong. He'd weathered the storm and come out the stronger for it. He was certain they all had, well, he was certain up until today.

The investigation into the young gang banger's death was over, though his name had been made public and he'd been plastered all over the evening news for days, actually weeks now. The shooting had been deemed justifiable, but he still cringed at the memory of that raid, the look in her eye before she pulled the trigger and shot him; went to shoot him again when he didn't go down the first time. Danny still had the occasional nightmare, more than occasional, actually. Because how could you be right, or justifiable, when the life that you took was the life of an innocent, the life of a child. Leia ʻŌpūnui had only been twelve.

Steve had argued that the girl was no 'innocent'. That the intentional use of a gun had no limitations on age. The media hadn't quite agreed with his partner, so no matter how hard his team had tried to protect him, once his name had been released, the palace had turned into breeding grounds for crazed journalists. Now though, what Danny thought had been finally over, seemed to be just beginning.

The detective shuffled into his partner's office, clutching the picture he'd received via mail in his fingers. He tossed the crumpled photo onto the commander's desk, his other fist still holding on to the second picture.

"Look at the back." Danny hadn't given his friend time to take more than a cursory look at the photo.

Steve flipped the picture over, his features gradually darkening. Block letters, bold and blackened, were printed across the matted white backing of the 5x8.

"This isn't possible, he's dead," Steve growled, looking up at him, the print now crumpled in his fist.

Danny shrugged, though not one ounce of him felt nonchalant, his tremors proving it. The words …

Compliments of Kimo Hailama. Cop, father, son, brother.

... had pretty much done the trick of sending Danny's mind spinning.

The picture on the front had made his hair stand on end at the nape of his neck though. The color photo had been taken almost four and half years ago. A picture of their 'ohana—Steve, Danny, Chin, Kono, Grace— and Danny's police dog ...

Kahu.

"This came with it." Danny slid the second picture across the desk, his fingers trembling. It was an old picture, the color's faded, but there was no mistaking two members of the group. Kimo Hailama, the ex-officer who had abducted Danny, not once, but twice, and who had been eventually killed by Danny's Kahu, before she'd succumbed to her own injuries. And Heriberto Ceballos Sr., father of Heriberto Arturo Gonzalo Ceballos Jr., head of the Grajales. Tucked and swaddled in the arms of Kimo Hailama, was an infant.

"Check the back," Danny whispered, both palms placed flat on his partner's desk as he leaned in closer.

Steve flipped the second picture over.

"Shit."

Written across the back, the same as the first, were the words …

'Ohana, one for the other. Leia ʻŌpūnui. Daughter, niece.

~the end~