A/N: Hello again. Thanks for stopping by!
Well, this thing wouldn't leave me alone, so I went ansd wrote it. It doesn't have much plot, but I hope you guys like it.
In Danny's opinion, this week wouldn't even make the cut of the top ten worst weeks of his life. That privilege went to the week Rachel and he split up, the week Rachel and Gracie moved to Hawaii, the week Matt left to God knows where, and a few others highlights that he would rather not remember right now.
The problem was that this week he's had no more than an hour of sleep each night. This week they had to deal with the case of a man who murdered his own wife and kidnapped his own daughter, because said wife didn't want him anywhere near them. This week he had had to arrest said father. This week he had found the little girl stuffed into the trunk of a car, a car that had been parked under the sun for 6 hours. This week he had tried and failed to resuscitate that little girl. This week, right when he had hoped to spend some time with his own little princess and make sure nobody hurt her like that bastard had hurt his own child, Rachel had informed him that he wouldn't be seeing Grace this weekend, because they had plans with some friends of Stan. This week Rachel also informed him that he wouldn't be seeing Grace for three, maybe four weeks, because they were going on vacation. So, even though this week didn't quite qualify as one of the worst weeks of Danny's life, it came pretty close.
He was trying to fill out the mountain of paperwork from the case - He'd make sure that all of the paperwork was properly filed; the bastard was not getting out on some technicality if he could do something about it – but it was getting kind of difficult to do, especially since the words kept morphing together. He pinched the bride of his nose, trying to rub a headache away, but the letters on the page kept doing a happy dance in front of his eyes.
He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He must have dozed off, because next thing he knew, he was being startled awake by McGarrett's arrival. "Danny, come on, let's go home."
Danny jumped in his seat, blinking tiredly at Steve. "You go ahead, babe. I gotta finish this paperwork…"
Steve shook his head, coming to stand in front of Danny's desk. "Danny, we can finish that paperwork tomorrow. I think we've had enough for today…"
Danny massaged his forehead tiredly and glared at Steve. "Enough for today he says! I've had enough for a year! Hell! I've had enough for a lifetime! I tell you, McGarrett, I'd be a happy man if I never have to find a little girl's body shoved into a trunk ever again! You hear me? Ever! Again! That's why I'm not leaving this place until I've filled all the paperwork needed to send that son of a bitch to the darkest hellhole the good State of Hawaii can find for him! He won't get out just because I failed to fill some stupid form, you hear me?"
Steve lifted his hands in a placating gesture, for once trying to be the voice of reason. "Danny, we're all dead tired. Wouldn't it be better to come back to fill these forms with a clear head? Get the facts straight?"
Danny dropped his pen and leaned forward, grabbing his head with his hands. Damn, he hated it when Steve was right. He should go home and get some rest, come back well rested and with a clear head, but he didn't want to have to remember all of this tomorrow. He didn't want to see Lynn's little body or the tear tracks on her face. He wanted to be done with it and forget this week ever happened.
Unfortunately, Steve was right; he wasn't going to get anything done tonight, so he might as well give up the fight. "Alright, you win. Let's go."
As they neared the Camaro, Steve went to the driver's side without even asking Danny. Danny would have said something if he wasn't as tired as he was. Not that he would admit that to Steve if he asked.
Apparently he slept through the whole trip to McGarrett's place, because the next thing he knew he was parking the car and looking at him nervously. "Hey Danny, do you want to come in for a couple of beers?"
The prospect of going back to the matchbox he called his apartment was not very appealing, so he nodded. "Alright, lead the way, fearless leader."
They settled on the lanai, each with a longboard on their hands. They were really not in the mood for conversation, so they just sat there, looking at the ocean. Some time later, Danny was being gently awakened by Steve. "Alright Danno, off to bed with you." He said, trying to help him to get to his feet.
"Wha?" Was the most coherent thing Danny managed to say. He let himself be lead towards the living room, but when Steve started steering him towards the stairs instead of the front door, he stopped in his tracks. "Wait… What are you doing?"
Steve raised his eyebrows. "You're dead on your feet, Danny. You can crash in the guest room…"
Danny shook his head. "No… should go home…"
Steve chuckled. "You're having trouble stringing whole sentences together and you want to drive back to your place?"
Danny blinked tiredly. "Alright… Bed…"
He followed Steve towards the guest room. Steve disappeared for a moment and came back with a t-shirt and track pants for Danny. "Here you go, man. Unless you usually sleep with your tie?" He asked smirking.
Danny took the clothes and started changing into them, but took a minute to consider Steve's question. "No, no tie when I sleep…" He said, shaking his head.
Steve laughed. "Well that's good to know…"
After changing, Danny sat down on the bed, too tired to figure out what he was supposed to do next. Steve shook his head, chuckling. "Come on, Danno, get in the bed. I never thought I'd be tucking you in like Gracie."
Danny let himself be tucked in, but at hearing his daughter's name he shook his head sadly. "Nope, no Grace…"
Steve noticed the change on his friend. "What do you mean?"
Danny was half asleep already. "Won't be seeing her for about a month. She got more important stuff to do than see me…" And with a sad sigh he was out.
Steve patted his shoulder comfortingly, worried by his partner's words. "Sleep well, Danno."
A couple of hours later, Steve was sitting on the lanai. Even though it had been a tough case, even more so for Danny, Steve wasn't ready to go to bed yet, more used to too few hours of sleep over a long period of time. After cleaning up his kitchen, rearranging some stuff on his living room and a couple of beers, he was finally in the mood to seek his own bed. So, of course that he would be interrupted by a noise coming from the guestroom.
He listened through the door, hearing some pained whimpering. He decided to open the door quietly. If Danny was having a nightmare, no matter how awkward it could get, he would wake him. He didn't want his friend reliving this day if he could help it.
Once he opened the door he was surprised to notice from Danny's body language that he was definitely not asleep. He was curled up on his side, holding his head and emitting soft whimpers of pain.
In two steps Steve was crouching at Danny's side. "Danny? What's wrong?"
Danny was startled by Steve's appearance at his side, but he didn't bother to move, it would hurt too much. He settled for opening one eye. "H-hey Steve. S-sorry. It's just… Just a headache…" He whispered.
Steve matched his tone of voice. "Just a headache? This doesn't look like just a headache, Danny."
Danny took a shuddering breath. "They just get a bit bad sometimes…"
Steve shook his head at his partner's capacity of understatement, but decided not to comment on it. "Danny, what do you need? How can I help?"
Danny was rubbing his throbbing forehead with a shaking hand. "Hmm… Pa-pain killers? D'you have any?"
Steve flew in search of painkillers, and came back with a couple of pills and a glass of water. He helped Danny to sit up and take the pills and helped him back down gently.
He sat down on the bed next to Danny's head and started to comb his fingers gently through Danny's hair, hoping to help him relax enough to go back to sleep. It didn't quite have the desired effect though, since he saw Danny move his hand from his forehead to cover his eyes, and a soft sob escape his friend's mouth.
If there was one thing Steve McGarrett never expected to see it was his partner in tears. He had been trained to deal with terrorists, suicide bombers and many other dangerous situations, but he had no clue how to deal with his miserable and overwrought partner. He started patting Danny's shoulder in a, hopefully, comforting way. "Hey, Danny… It's alright. Why don't you tell me what's wrong?"
Danny didn't lift his hand from his eyes, his shoulders shaking. "Shit, sorry… Just, I hate this… Hate my life…"
Steve sat with Danny, awkwardly patting his shoulder and stroking his head. "Shh, it's alright, man… It'll be alright…"
Danny kept sobbing softly into the pillow. "Just wanna go home…"
Steve continued trying to comfort Danny. "Do you want me to drive you to your place?"
Danny didn't look up. "No. Jersey… J-just wish I could go back home… I hate this shit…Just wanna go home…"
Steve continued trying to comfort his friend, wishing there was something else he could do to help.
Finally, the painkillers kicked in and Danny fell asleep. After that, Steve brought an armchair into the room, so he could keep an eye on his friend. He'd make sure nothing else perturbed his sleep tonight.
TBC...
A/N: Thank you for reading, and I hope you'd like to leave a review!
See you around!
