Such a profound soul

Steves POV

I couldn't find Danny! And I have to admit I was so deeply carried away by the sight of Ella and this family reunion, I never noticed him leaving us. Neither did Kono and Chin.

I entered the house and asked one of the working CSI's about him. She told me he left 20 minutes ago with the diary.

'Diary? What Diary?' was confused. I didn't know anything about this. I left the house in direction of the back yard. Still no sight of Danno.

I started to worry. It was evident: This case affected my boy deeply. The way he hugged Ella, calming her down, calming himself down, her body slightly trembling, matching Dannys … He refused to let her go, talked to her about his own little Monkey until the paramedics arrived.

I heard the roaring engine of the camaro and headed to the front yard, but I was too late. Danny was gone.

'He asked me to give you a lift! He had to leave!' Chin told me.

I didn't understand. 'Where is he going?'

Chin just shrugged. 'No idea. Maybe he just needs a little time to calm down. This was rough for him.'

'Yeah, I know!' I was still worried but I had to turn my focus back on the case at hand.

H50H50H50H50H50

After one and an half hour we were finally ready to leave the crime scene. We headed back to HQ and I really wanted to find Danno there doing the paperwork as usual. But my hopes were dashed.

After one more hour with no word from Danny I couldn't take it anymore. I poked my head into Chins office: 'Do me a favor, and track the camaro will ya?'

My friend gave me a skeptical look. 'You're sure, you want to do that? Danny won't be glad about this. Don't you think we should give him the time he needs?'

I got agitated and started pacing: 'Can't do this Chin. You weren't there from the start. Danny, … Danny was completely out of his usually self. I never saw him like this before. … He…he did …' I stumbled over my own words.

"Danny?... Do you try to tell us Danny ehm…'interrogated' the suspect?' Kono joined us at the computer table eyes wide in disbelief.

I breathed in deep and nodded, 'Yeah! So please do it!' I ordered a stunned looking Chin.

H50H50H50H50H50

When I found him physically whole in one piece on a bench in Ala Moana Beach Park, this place wich held a lot of painful memories of Dannys worst nightmare, it was a relief.

Danny, who sat showing his back to me, however sensed my appearance (as usual): 'Please don't argue with me, will ya?'

Something in his voice and in the sight of his posture made it easy for me to give him this little bit of peace he seemed begging for. So I took the seat right next to him and gave him a silent once-over.

'I'm ok, Steven!' He tried to reassure me. 'Just sad, ya know?'

I nodded silently, waiting for my friend to continue.

He held up a little red book that I assumed was the one they found on the crime scene.

'This isn't a diary!...Was never about her present days!' Danny opened the book and skimmed though the pages. 'It was about her past. About her real family. She wrote down every memory she had to not forget them. There are pictures from her home, the garden, her first bike. A picture about her dad… But no pictures of her mom.' He gave me a short sideways glance: 'You know the reason?'

I shook my head and answered quietly: 'No, tell me Danno.'

Taking a shaky breath he looked up into the sky as he answered: 'She said, all she needed to remember her was the picture that she saw when she looked in the mirror.'

As I saw the silent tear slipping down Dannys face all I wanted to do was grab him and hold him and tell him that everything would gonna be okay. I never ever wanted to let go. But the moment I reached out to him, I saw his body tense up.

'Not yet!' He whispered. 'I still have some errands to run.' It sounded like an apology.

He rose and walked in the direction of his car with me in tow. As we reached it, he stood at the driver's door and asked: 'You won't leave me alone would you?' I think he didn't expect it any other way as I nodded and answered: 'No, I'm sorry brah, not gonna happen!' Then I got into the passenger seat for once.

We drove in silence to the Morris' house. Danny shut down the engine, turned to face me and asked the question I feared since I realized witch direction our ride went: 'You wanna come with me?'

And here it is! I'm a coward one when it comes to emotional stuff. I plainly didn't know what to say to Tip earlier and even so to Amanda Morris' parents. I felt like I was an outsider. I knew that I wasn't able to even imagine what they were going through all this years. So I stayed in the car.

After half an hour Danny silently sat down next to me and started the camaro.

'You wanna come grab some beers!' I asked hopefully.

'Not yet,' was all he said.

We rounded half of the island and I didn't dare asking D. to tell me what he was up to after this long exhausting day. Suddenly he turned his car into an empty parking lot on the side of the road. He twitched a colorful lei, I never noticed lying there from the back seat. 'You're commin'? Don't worry, no social interaction required this time', he mocked me.

H50H50H50H50H50

'Adorn yourself, O dear soul', I heard Danno mumble.

The moment I saw Danny kneeling down to drab the lei around Maile Gilbert's memorial stone, I just lost it, turned my back to him, buried my face into my hands and started sobbing helplessly. I took a few steps back to give them both the privacy I truly thought they deserved.

I watched Danny struggling to make peace with this day full of calamities. The whole team was caught up in this storm of child abuse. But Danny being Danny?.. I knew he took the major weight of it, took all responsibilities on his own shoulders, trusting no one to handle this the right way. Doing so, he helped everyone to cope a little easier. I never knew a human being with such a profound soul. How blessed I was calling him "The One". Even if he didn't knew that yet. Thinking of it was what made me cry again.

I felt ha hand touching my shoulder and gently trying to move me around.

Danny stood in front of me locking his beautiful eyes with mine. He raised his hand to thump my tearstained cheeks: 'Hey, it's going to be okay, Steven', he soothed me. And I couldn't take it any longer. I grabbed him and pulled him into a soft shaky kiss.

After it ended, he gave me a weak smile: 'Let's go home now, babe. I could need a beer and a hug.'