Title: The Reckoning
Author: kitmerlot1213
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Spoilers for the Season One finale
A/N: Thanks to shinysylverfor the beta help.
He was supposed to have come back to her. Wasn't that the whole point behind the "If you love someone, set them free" phrase? If the person loved you and if you were truly meant to be together, wasn't that person supposed to come back to you?
The first time Rachel was threatened by the Governor, she'd stood in complete shock and hardly spoke. In her heart, she'd known that Grace wasn't in any danger from Danny, but the minute she'd heard that he'd once again rushed into danger, and that this time, their daughter was present, she'd panicked. It took Pat Jameson coming to the mansion and threatening Stanley's livelihood to make her back off and look at the mistakes she was making with her ex-husband.
But the second time the Governor threatened her, she'd barely made it to the bathroom before she'd gotten sick, her throat and nose burning with bile and her hands shaking with fear.
"Rachel, what do you mean there's no baby?"
Even though they were thousand of miles away, Rachel could still hear the anger and fear and bone deep exhaustion in Danny's voice. She felt sick that she was causing him more worry but she had to finally tell him the truth.
"Danny, please, please listen to me. You're in danger."
"Rach, for Christ's sake..."
She quickly interrupted, "I lied about the pregnancy so I could save your life."
"What do you mean? She could tell that he was making an effort at keeping his voice even because she knew that once Danny started yelling, he'd never be able to stop.
Rachel took a shaky breath and then the story seemed to pour out of her. "The Governor...she told me that it would be in my family's best interest if you were on a flight off of the island as quickly as possible. Or..."
She paused and fought back tears, trying to find the best way to explain why she'd done something so monumentally cruel to a man she so desperately loved.
But Danny, ever the detective, must have thought she'd needed some hand holding to get her story out. She could hear the rustle of his shirt as he leaned into the phone, and deliberately pitched his voice to a soothing tone he probably used to deal with skittish victims.
"Rach, I need you to take a deep breath..."
"Oh for God sake's Daniel, I'm not one of your interview subjects. I just needed a minute to gather my thoughts. As I was saying, the Governor said that something terrible would happen to you and Grace if I didn't do everything possible to get you to leave Hawaii. She indicated that the sooner this happened, the safer both you and Grace would be."
There was silence on the other end of the call and Rachel knew that Danny was trying to wrap his brain around all of the information she'd just dropped on him. It was another whole minute before he spoke again. "So you thought pretending to be pregnant was your best play? Instead of, oh I don't know, coming to me with Jameson's threats?"
She winced at hearing the pained anguish in his voice, knowing that he was right.
And the question remained, why hadn't she gone to him? Just as quickly, she'd known the answer. She had wanted to save him, to keep him out of harm's way, but now she'd hurt him the worst way possible.
Rachel could hear Danny trying to swallow his anger down, but he was too hurt to even attempt to be stoic. "God Rachel, how could you lie to me about having my baby?"
Her quiet anser came back. "I knew it was the only guaranteed way that you would follow us off the island." She paused again, and when she spoke, her voice was even quieter. "But you still let us go."
Rachel married Stanley three months after her divorce from Danny was finalized and they moved to Hawaii three months after that. In retrospect, she couldn't have made it any more obvious that she was running from Danny if she tried.
At the time, she loved the fact that Stan was the complete opposite of Danny. Stan was tall and as handsome as any male model currently in the cologne ads. He also had a career that didn't involve his getting shot at or stabbed or any other kind of violence.
She convinced herself that she was happy and that loving Stan was practically the same as being in love with him and she tried to ignore the rest. Ignore that Stan wasn't an upstanding citizen but rather the type of person Danny arrested on a daily basis.
Rachel and Grace returned to Hawaii when Danny pointed out that the Governor's death rendered any threats she made against them meaningless.
But now all she had left was a shattered life. She knew that any chance she might have had making a new life with Danny was over, even before she saw his closed off expression. He would eventually forgive her, but he'd never fully trust her with his heart again.
When he met them at the airport, he had merely nodded at her but his face lit up with joy when their daughter ran into his arms, and Rachel had to briefly turn away. He would always be a better father to Grace them he was a husband to her and that fact devastated her.
But maybe that was for the best. She always seemed to lose her good judgement when she was around Danny Williams and that wasn't good for her well being or their daughter's.
Rachel had been genuinely surprised when Danny asked her to testify against Wo Fat. Or rather, when he showed her the mountain of evidence that he, Chin and Jenna had gathered to clear Steve's name and to implicate the real killer.
What hadn't surprised her was that Stan's involvement with the corrupt housing commissioner somehow tied into Wo Fat's bribing government officials which tied him to the Governor.
Rachel was never so grateful to see a friendly face in her life. Danny smiled encouragingly at her as she stood nervously in the hallway of Honolulu's courthouse, waiting to give her testimony against Wo Fat.
He had been arrested while trying to leave the island by the Coast Guard and was now standing trial for the murder of the Governor, and a host of secondary offenses.
Rachel knew that all of the ugliness was going to come out for the entire world to hear, that one day her daughter would know that her parents committed adultery, and that her mom faked a pregnancy to trick her dad into leaving the state.
She looked up as the bailiff opened the courtroom door and motioned her inside.
Danny reached out and squeezed her hand. "I'll be right here, waiting for you to get out," he promised. "Just tell the truth and you'll be fine."
Rachel sighed deeply as she leaned against the courtroom door. Two days of testimony, of digging up every secret she'd ever kept regarding her marriage to Stan and her true feelings for Danny where laid open for all of Hawaii to see.
The attorney general had wanted Wo Fat more then a greedy real estate developer, and Stan had turned states' evidence against the housing commissioner he'd been trying to blackmail who in turn named Wo Fat as the person bribing him.
It had been a shock to realize that Stan's less then savory business dealings had enabled Wo Fat and the Governor to sink their claws into them. She had behaved stupidly and people had gotten hurt because of it.
Rachel felt physically ill and more uncomfortably close to tears than she had any right to be, considering she was the architect to her own misery. She looked at all of the ruined lives before her and swore to herself that she would do everything in her power to protect Grace from all of the mistakes she made.
She made her way to the bench where Danny was sitting and slumped down next to him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him reach his hand towards hers but seemed to think better of it. He'd opened his mouth to speak but she beat him to it.
"I've hurt so many people with my actions. How can I possibly make up for all of that?
Her whispered words caught him off guard and he froze but then he nodded slowly in agreement. "First, you were not alone in making these bad decisions and no, we can't make up for it, but we can swear to not let it happen again."
She waited for him to look at her before she spoke again. "Danny, I need to say I'm sorry..." she'd barely gotten the words out before he'd tried to interrupt her. "No, let me finish."
He lapsed into silence and silently motioned for her to go on. "I know how much I hurt you and I need you to know I'm sorry."
He smiled slightly and nodded again, but she wasn't finished. She couldn't quite look at him as she spoke this second part, afraid to see her words hurt him anymore then he already was. "I do love you Danny and I know you love me to, but we're not in love with each other."
She swallowed audibly before she could speak again. "We're not right for each other and I think you know it too."
Rachel could feel rather then see him grimacing at her words.
Danny ran a hand tiredly over his face before he answered her. "I can't not be a cop, and you can't be a cop's wife." He rested his forearms onto his thighs as he slumped slightly forward. "We will fools to even try again."
Rachel's eyes filled with tears at his words and she leaned slightly into him, silently begging for comfort. Danny brought his arm around her shoulder and patted her back, neither one sure of what the future would bring.
Rachel smiled to herself as she watched Grace race across the beach towards the water, Steve and Kono laughingly chasing her, Danny calling to them to be careful.
It was four months to the day that Steve was cleared of all charges and the Five-0 was officially reinstated as the new Governor's task force with Steve still running the show. Kono was reinstated at HPD, and she, Chin and Danny were back working for the former Navy SEAL. Jenna had gone back to work for the CIA but the five promised to remain in touch.
And Rachel was trying to adjust to her new life. She had gotten a job through one of her former Economics teachers at the Honolulu Credit Union and things were going well. She hadn't quite made any new friends, but her coworkers had at least stopped whispering about her every time she left a room.
With the exception of Grace, she had felt completely alone and had wallowed in self pity until Danny had shown up one early Saturday morning, while their daughter was at her surfing lesson to talk to her. But he was so worried about her that his "talking" soon turned to yelling.
And in truly Danny WIlliams fashion, he ended his rant with a whispered, "As long as I'm alive, you will never be alone" and Rachel had promptly burst into tears.
True to his word, he'd made sure Rachel was always included in whatever activities he had planned for him and Grace and while she appreciated the effort, she knew it was time she made a life for herself.
Rachel saw the close bond that Danny had formed with his teammates and in particular with Steve and it made her wonder. They cared for Danny and Grace which showed that they had good taste but she was mature enough to admit to herself that she couldn't quite deal with the barely contained disdain from them whenever they so much as looked in her direction.
They were never openly rude to her, especially in front of Danny and Grace, but Rachel could feel the waves of dislike coming off of them. She couldn't blame them because she had hurt their friend and it became obvious very quickly that Danny's team were very protective of their mainlander and his daughter. There was a part of her that was jealous at their camaraderie and wished she wasn't left out of it but she knew she deserved it.
Steve in particular seemed to brim with hostility whenever her name was so much as mentioned and the more Rachel thought about it, the more she realized that even when she'd first met Steve, he'd had a "Your loss is my gain" attitude whenever Danny was discussed.
She decided to test the waters one day when Danny had been going on about the was Steve made fun of his shirt and tie.
"I know he deliberately spilt coffee on my dress shirt and then he said that my new brown and green stripped tie looked like someone puked on it. I mean, what the hell?"
"I'd cut the poor guy some slack if I were you, " Rachel interrupted, "Steve probably wished he could take your shirt off himself."
Danny had started to agree and then the full force of what she said hit him and he honest to God blushed and ducked his head, quickly changing the subject.
Rachel knew right then and there that she was going to make things right for Grace and Danny, and that included helping her ex-husband get together with the man he belonged with.
She was going to spend weekends at Steve's beach house, whenever she was invited and she was going to encourage Danny and Steve to take a chance and explore their obvious feelings for each other.
After all, people in love should be together.