The Duplicity of Men

"McGarrett." Steve's voice was clipped as he answered the phone, his mind still mostly on the paperwork on his desk. He never seemed to get to the end of it. He was convinced it was breeding, an unusually fanciful thought for such a practical man, but one which had its birthplace in a remark that he had overheard a day or so before.

"Steve, its Danny." It was apparent that Danny was on the radio, being patched through. "All hell has broken loose down here," he reported. "It's like they knew we were coming."

That was not good news. Danny, Chin and Kono had gone with a couple of HPD men as back-up to arrest some members of one of the biggest drug gangs that had suddenly sprung up on the island just recently. The streets were flooded with cheap heroin and cocaine and the number of deaths had also multiplied. The drugs had been cut with arsenic, making them deadly. War had broken out between this new gang and the suppliers that had worked the island before and Five-O had been working hard to arrest as many gang members as they could, but were making only sporadic progress. In the last few days, as Danny reported, it seemed as though the gang was being tipped off as to the planned raids.

"Have you got more back-up rolling?" Steve demanded, knowing Danny would have sent for help at once, but still needing to ask, to cover all the bases.

"On the way," Danny agreed.

"I'll be right there!" Steve insisted, although his presence wouldn't make that much difference. Still, he could not sit back and do nothing when his men were in danger. "Be careful!" Jumping to his feet, Steve shouldered his way into his jacket as he hurried out of the door.

As Danny dropped the mic and slid out of the LTD, a shot pinged off the roof of the car and whistled past his ear. Danny ducked lower, even as Kono reached up to yank him down. "You gonna lose your head, bruddah," he chided the younger man.

"There's no danger of that with you around," Danny countered as Kono's grip on his arm remained in place, preventing the second in command from popping up to return fire.

"We're out numbered," Chin reminded Danny from Kono's other side.

"I don't know that we are," Danny disagreed. "Just out gunned." He had made an attempt to get his rifle from the trunk of his car and almost got a face-full of shrapnel for his trouble.

"Same thing," Kono retorted. "We need back up, wikiwiki."

"It's coming," Danny sighed, guessing from the bruising grip on his arm that Kono was not going to let him shoot back until there were other officers on the scene. "Steve's coming, too." He didn't really need to see the glance that Kono and Chin exchanged. He knew that the others would not let him get into a position where he might be hurt, especially if Steve McGarrett was on the way. Everyone knew that Steve was rather protective of his youngest detective.

There was a shout near-by as one of the HPD officers popped up at the wrong moment and caught a bullet in the arm. The Five-O officers all tensed and Kono relinquished his grip on Danny as they watched the man crawl back to the relative safety of the patrol car.

"This is ridiculous," Danny murmured. He turned and peered over the car again and shot at a movement in the building. There was a volley of return fire, but it seemed thinner than the previous volleys had. "I think I got one of them," Danny speculated. He fired again, Kono and Chin lending some supporting fire.

By now, the sound of sirens as back-up drew nearer were clearly audible. There were signs of movement within the building and Danny began to actively worry that the gang would manage to escape out the back, as they had had no opportunity to place men at the back of the building. He reached for the mic again, intending to direct some of the arriving units to cover the back.

He must have been seen, for the windows of the LTD suddenly splintered into a million pieces as the gang members opened fire. Glass sprayed all around and everyone ducked for cover. Danny dropped the mic and threw himself face down on the seat. Shots peppered the vehicle and Danny feared that the petrol tank would take a direct hit. He slithered carefully backwards, keeping his head well down and saw with relief that reinforcements had arrived.

It took a moment to realise that the shooting had stopped. He popped up warily, but the windows facing them were blank now. Officers in flak jackets were converging on the building, but Danny already knew that the gang members had fled. He stood straight and moved to join them, but a hand on his arm stopped him. He glanced up at Kono. "What?" he asked.

"You bleeding, bruddah," Kono informed him. He pointed to Danny's hand.

Following Kono's finger, Danny saw a slice running across the back of his hand. It didn't look too bad and he was only just beginning to feel it, but it was bleeding freely. "Must have been the glass," Danny agreed dismissively. He was about to move off once again, but Kono prevented it.

"You covered in blood," he announced worriedly.

"Covered?" Danny was beginning to feel impatient. He was in no pain to speak of, the injury was hardly life threatening and everyone knew a little blood went a long, long way. He looked down at himself and realised that Kono was right. His shirt was speckled with blood all down the front and a quick look around confirmed that nobody else was badly enough injured that their blood could have splattered all over Danny. "How…?" he wondered, but Kono was already taking charge of his weapon and Chin was now reaching to loosen his tie. "I'm fine," Danny protested, but he was ignored as Kono gently unbuttoned his shirt.

There were multiple tiny nicks and cuts all over Danny's chest and stomach, probably from the shards of glass littering the seat of the LTD. Danny's backwards slide from the seat of the car had caused the small wounds, all of which were bleeding. "You better get to the hospital," Kono suggested worriedly.

"I'm fine," Danny reiterated. Now that his attention had been drawn to the wounds, they stung slightly, but there was nothing life threatening and he certainly didn't need to go to the hospital. There was work to do here and standing around chatting was not going to get it done. They had to find out how the gang had discovered that they had been going to do a raid that day. "Let's go." He shook off the other men and started to re-button his shirt. He could just hear the stories that would go around about the way he was babied and he began to feel quite annoyed.

"You don't look that fine to me," Steve said, arriving at Kono's side. "You at least need to get that checked out. How did it happen?"

Before Danny could say a word, Kono jumped in, postulating the theory that Danny had been cut by the glass on the car seat. Smears of blood there tended to support that theory and by the time Kono had finished, Danny was feeling less annoyed and more amused by the big man's solicitousness. Kono was his friend and was just looking out for him. It was hardly Kono's fault that Danny hated to be babied. "I'm fine," he added, as punctuation to Kono's story. His tone declared that he thought this sorry saga was over and done with.

"You still need to get that checked out," Steve declared. "Kono, make sure he goes to the hospital. Chin, you're with me." The problem solved to his satisfaction, Steve swept away, leaving Danny feeling annoyed again and Kono trying not to smirk.

"Come on, kaikaina," Kono urged, taking Danny's arm. "You heard da boss."

"But it doesn't mean I have to like it," Danny grumbled as he followed along obediently.