Disclaimer: Hawaii 5-0 and all of its characters belong to Peter Lenkov and CBS Studio Productions. If they belonged to me, Steve would wear his dog tags, Danny would steal Steve's dog tags, and Scott Caan/Alex O'Loughlin would never wear shirts. Ever. Well...if they did, it would be because they were wearing tuxedos.
Random thought: McDanno reminds me of Disney movies. Just...in general. Mike and Sully in Monsters Inc., Lilo and Stitch, Beauty and the Beast...I could go on...
The street was hidden under a sea of blue and brass, the sound of bagpipes wafting on the sweet Hawaiian air (because, if there was one thing that the mainland did right, it was the Bagpipes of the Brotherhood). They all marched behind the shiny black hearse, their heads hung low and their hearts heavy.
The sun shone on the precession rebelliously, as they neared the cemetary. He wished that it would rain...no, he wished that it would pour. At least if it was raining, it wouldn't seem like the world was continuing to spin when he knew that it had really come to a screeching halt four days earlier with one phone call.
When they reached the cemetary, he watched the rest of the ceremony with a detatched numbness. The uniformed men stood in a postion, their white gloves on the edges of a crisp, new flag that had been draped over the polished Oak casket. The retort of seven rifles firing made him flinch, his mind flashing through ways that this could have ended differently.
The flag made loud snaps as they folded it, slowly and methodically, next to the open hole in the ground. The men wore no expression as they folded and tucked and retucked each of the edges, creasing the cloth of the flag with their gloved hands. Kono's hand was heavy on his shoulder as tears fell down her face, so he reached out and pulled her against him, her head pillowing itself against his chest as he dropped a kiss to her hair. Chin, the bastard, stood with a zen-detachment that was so much more believeable than his attempt at cool and disengaged. It was disarming, and unfair.
It wasn't until the man closest to them, the one with enough medals and strips on his chest to decorate half of the military, walked towards him, with the folded flag extended in front of him that it hit home. This was happening. He was standing at his partner's funeral. He was never going to see his best friend again. The man that he had loved had scarificed his own life to save his team. The lump of emotion in his throat blind sided him.
"On behalf of the United States of America, and the Navy SEALs, I offer my deepest condolences. Steven McGarrett was an excellent SEAL, and an even more amazing man. He made the world a better place and he will be sorely missed." Danny swallowed a sob, and nodded, his gaze flicking to where Mary was wiping at her tears with a scrap of white linen.
"Th-thank you." He replied. The man straightened from his position on his knee and reached up to his uniform, removing the gold pin on his chest. The gold trident, eagle, and pistol glinted in the sunlight as he pressed the point of the pin into the casket before saluting. Danny watched as several other men in Navy dress uniforms that looked like Steve's that he'd seen so many times followed suit, saluting the casket before moving to their seats. He was startled when a large, gruff looking man began speaking.
"Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett was one of the few men that I have met who kept to the true spirit of the SEALs. He was courageous, and he was impulsive," Danny fought the urge to let out a sad chuckle. "But that impulsive nature was what made him the man that he was. He sacrificed his life to save the life of his team. There are very few men in this world that would jump on an explosive and wave off back-up simply because he knew that there was no way to defuse it before it detonated. That's just who McGarrett was."
Danny glanced back at the casket, his heart clenching as he recalled Steve's face the day that he'd had that proximity sensor on his chest. He knew that Steve would have gladly taken his place if he could have, because it was, in fact, the kind of man that he was. There was no denying that.
"John 15:13 tells us 'greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for the lives of his friends'. Steve was a living testemant to that." The man paused before turning to look at the rest of the team before yelling in a booming voice, "Commander McGarrett." A chill ran down Danny's spine when he heard the response from the rest of the team.
"Hooyah, Commander McGarrett!" Danny clutched the flag to his chest as they lowered the casket into the ground while taps echoed across the field. As bad as it hurt to lose Steve, he knew that his partner would have preferred to be the one to take the fall for his teammates. He'd told Danny about them before he'd left. Reinier had a six week old baby boy that he was leaving with his wife. Rousseu had twin boys, a beautiful wife, and his little brother to raise. Chief had a team of men that he needed to lead into the fields of battle on many more missions to keep Danny and Gracie safe (Steve's words, not Danny's).
Danny had tried to tell him that he had Gracie to come home to. And he had Danny to come home to. Steve had simply chuckled, told him he had nothing to worry about, and reminded him that Danny kept telling him he was too damned stubborn to die anyway. For the first time since they'd met in their garage those years before, Danny wished more than anything that Steven had been right.