I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: plotless wonder ... be patient with the muse please ... this will not go up on a regular basis. However, up to ten chapters are well drafted and I do promise that it will be completed. Thanks to Fifilla for the ongoing "support" (enabling said muse/bunny so well!) and CinderH for the last minute beta help ... LOL!

Chapter One

H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O*

He didn't even try to wrack his brain for the answer. He simply hurt too much. And then there was the way his vision grayed, swam about and then became so grossly distorted that he couldn't even hope to focus on the blurry outline of his partner. His only resort was to close his eyes as he lay on his right side, because watching Danny's lop-sided monochrome outline stagger to and fro across the Five-0 offices was too much to contend with.

"How is he?" Danny asked, a worried glance tossed over his shoulder towards Chin who was just running back in with a med-kit. Chin's temple was bleeding, but he was otherwise unscathed. His own right arm though was cradled resolutely to his body while he fisted and re-fisted his hand continuously in a vain attempt to disseminate the stinging bite from the bullet wound which had every nerve, from his elbow down to each finger, completely on fire.

"Bad," Chin answered without looking up. "Once I'm done with him, you're next."

A look of absolute dissatisfaction streaked across Danny's face as he discounted the man's latter comment. The much too simplistic reply about his partner, and the way in which the Asian fell to his knees next to him, communicated everything else he needed to know about the baffling situation. His concern only mounted as he watched Chin begin rummaging purposefully through the medical supplies he'd retrieved.

At Chin's knees, Steve heard snippets of the discussion which entirely pertained to him. The tension pulled relentlessly at his sense of duty until he owlishly managed to peel his eyes open. Steve peered up, blinking in confusion when he felt the warmth of a hand placed so strongly on his shoulder. He frowned for a long time until he realized Chin was perched by his side. He hardly recognized where they were within the 5-0 offices - his own office in fact - as a sharp pain drilled through the side of his head. In the background, first-responder sirens, the persistent squeal of internal fire alarms, what sounded like falling water and the odd creaks and groans of a damaged building intermingled into a confusing emsemble of noise. But the smell. The odor of war filled his nostrils and acted like the catalyst he needed to at least try to shake himself awake.

"What happened?" His voice slurred the words as his tongue refused to cooperate. "Help ... help me up."

"No, stay where you are ... just relax and stay down. We've got hostiles in the building, Steve," Chin whispered worriedly as Danny cursed softly under his breath from where he stood by the window. "You were shot, brah. Do you remember that?

"Hostiles? Why … what happened ... where's Danny?" Steve's confusion escalated when he lost sight of his partner. His thoughts skittered and his eyes were refusing to cooperate, leaving him at a loss as to what had happened. And as to why he was precisely where he was laying on the floor as his friend crouched down next to him, Steve was utterly perplexed. "Why … am I on the floor? Chin? Why … why … what's going on?" His weak attempt at rising was easily thwarted by his friend's firm hand which kept him laid out flat.

"Crap, Steve. Seriously?" Chin's eyes sparkled with a dark concern as his friend flailed briefly before gasping and trying to palm away an apparent deeply seated pain in his head. He intercepted Steve's scraped and bruised hand carefully, gently pulling it away from the bloody injury. "Danny's right over there by the window ... we're going to get you out of here."

"As soon as we figure out what the hell is going on," Danny groused loudly. "Two stories never seemed so damned high before." He rapped his fingers against the solid pane of the window and shook his head at what would likely be a very bad idea. He'd like to take a chance at breaking the glass to leave that way, but the distance down without proper help was daunting. Making matters worse, was the possible extent of Steve's injuries. Plus, they didn't know what they were up against as a spat of gunfire was exchanged from somewhere above them down towards the parking lot.

"Roof? There's more of them on the roof?" Danny complained as he ducked in reaction to the loud pops and pings, his eyes following the figures of other HPD officers as they dove for cover behind various vehicles. They were outgunned and out-numbered, and completely in the dark as to the methods or mode of their attackers.

"Why … why does my head … hurt," Steve moaned, his voice fading as he barely got out his last words. "… so much? Feel … sick."

"I know … I know. Relax for me, Steve," Chin whispered as his worry grew exponentially. He and Danny had hastily pulled on their tac-vests from the local lockers and draped a third over Steve's chest. Once Chin cared for the man's injuries, he planned to fasten it officially into place. He and Danny were now also armed to the teeth based on what they had access to, but Chin was drenched in both sweat and water from the sprinkler system as he hastily examined Steve's wounds. Under the heavy black vest, his shirt clung uncomfortably to his skin and the lack of air conditioning in the damaged building was already painfully obvious. "Please, brah. Just take it easy … you're okay and we are going to get you out of here."

As he listened to the worrying exchange taking place behind him, Danny narrowed his eyes dangerously while he looked cautiously out through the office window to monitor the organized chaos taking place in the large parking lot. A tactical perimeter was being organized below. He and Chin had also done their best to barricade themselves in as a safety measure, but they were woefully lacking in knowledge and at a huge disadvantage. The first explosion had sealed off their egress down, while a subsequent one more than adequately trapped them inside their wing of the building. What those bombs hadn't done, Danny and Chin completed to reinforce their location from direct attack. However, that move to keep them within Steve's office and near what was left of the main war room by the now woefully defunct smart table, also further kept them caged and with limited options.

"Along with what looks like half of HPD, SWAT's outside and geared up; they've got a perimeter in play. I don't know who else is in the building besides the three of us and our guests, but I do know that we're stuck right where we are for the foreseeable future. I hope Kono at least got out … or that she's hidden somewhere … somewhere safe until we figure this mess out," Danny whispered his updates quickly before leaving the window in order to crouch next to Chin's side. "This was well-orchestrated. The phones aren't working and they've managed to disrupt wireless service, so we're dead in the water."

Danny watched as Chin wiped Steve's face with a clean t-shirt once kept as a spare and once folded so neatly in his desk drawer. He winced as his own arm ached and blood continued to seep into his ruined sleeve. The bullet was still inside, likely embedded in the bone and he was in considerable pain. He had no time to worry about it though.

"He doesn't remember a thing about what happened, Danny," Chin said. "He's not focusing on anything."

Chin pawed at his face, his hand coming away damp with sweat as his stress mounted along with the airless quality of Steve's office. He'd packed and applied a pressure bandage to the bloody through and through gunshot wound which Steve had sustained to his left side. However, despite a thorough search, its heavily bleeding twin which lay two inches lower than the first, had no sign of an exit.

He'd also already done his best to care for the deep gouge along Steve's temple and his eyes focused on the bandage now taped to the side of the man's head. His concerned grimace was apparent and it left Danny wincing worriedly in denial at the unspoken opinion of a possible fractured skull. "He doesn't understand what's going on; it's like a switch just flipped off," Chin offered as explanation.

"Before he got taken down, he was hammered pretty good in that second explosion," Danny muttered, worries flitting through his head about any number of possible internal injuries on top of the many obvious ones. Steve had been just reaching the second floor landing when the next bomb had been detonated. The shock wave had virtually destroyed the floor above them sending debris cascading down in all directions. The ceiling had sagged dangerously low and the double-wide glass doors to their offices had shattered. The force had sent Steve sprawling to the tiled floor head first and then, he'd decidedly been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dazed by the overwhelming blast and attempting to protect himself from falling mangled building material, he'd miraculously managed to sway partly to his feet while automatically drawing his sidearm.

Even with Danny on the move though to back him up, it was too late. Two of their unidentified hostiles had appeared from nowhere and placed Steve in a heavy cross-fire. Danny had been shot while diving to his partner's defense through what remained of their main entrance. But Steve had gone down almost instantly and Danny had to literally drag him back through the broken glass and badly damaged hallway to the relative safety of his office.

"Easy, easy," Chin whispered desperately as Steve began to curl in on himself. Helplessly, the two men watched as Steve's eyes slid closed around a spasm of pain which brought on a sour dry heave.

"Steve?" Danny hunkered down closer next to Chin, clearly worried as Steve's breathing quickened to a near panicked rate. Heavy lines of distress knit his brow tightly as he groaned, yet he conversely seemed to drop into another zone of awareness. Seconds later, he was sagging weakly into the floor as taut muscles released one by one of their own accord.

"Hey, buddy, can you hear me? Steve?" Danny pleaded, his fears growing as his partner softly moaned and refused to open his eyes.

Chin shook his head as he half-listened to Danny's entreaties, his hand moving from Steve's left shoulder to his neck as his friend quieted far too much. "He's out," Chin glanced worriedly towards Danny, moving aside when the smaller man overwhelmed his space to anxiously palm the side of Steve's face. "This is messed up, Danny. What do these people want?"

"I don't know," Danny replied, his eyes wide with stress and concern by yet another rapid change as Steve seemed to melt limply into the very floor itself. "Hey, come on, no. No… wake up, buddy," Danny tapped his cheek gently, cursing under his breath when nothing happened. Worse yet, the once sickly distressed face slackened blandly under their combined pleas. The stark contrasts to Steve's usual more animated expression, now while desperately injured, allowed them both to see the dark circles around Steve's eyes, his lids nearly luminescent. "I have no idea who these people are or what they want. But we have to put an end to it and get him out of here."

The two men jolted as one though when the entire building was plunged into relative silence. As if triggered by a master switch, all the alarms and the hissing sound of water being sprayed from the overhead sprinkler system ended with a nearly simultaneously shudder. For a long, drawn out moment, Danny and Chin merely stared at each other, tension mounting and emanating from their bodies as they froze in place and ... waited. A few seconds later a loud mechanical hum filled the gap and both men turned to face the bank of windows.

"We are so screwed," Danny muttered, his eyes widening at the very unexpected sight of the camera-equipped aerial drone hovering just outside. "This just keeps getting better."

"Danny?" Chin whispered warily. Danny nodded once in reply. They were being watched; reported on and duly measured as the drone's camera eye rotated from left to right, then back again. Something was about to happen - something decidedly bad - and they could both feel it through to their very bones. At their feet, Steve's sporadic breaths were suddenly loud and Danny's hand dropped soothingly to his shoulder before his other readied his weapon. Then he was up, the wound in his own arm forgotten as he advanced aggressively towards the window with every intention of firing through the glass to take down the drone. Behind him, Chin gasped at the suddenness of Danny decision, yet he backed him fully as he stayed low to protect Steve.

"Son of a bitch!" Danny burst out as a flurry of gunfire echoed up from the parking lot first and the drone rose higher to evade multiple attackers. HPD was firing from below and the drone wobbled before it suddenly dipped to dive away from the glass. Seconds later it was gone, but Danny was angry and still primed by the visual attack.

"Positions," he ground out to Chin as he lurched away to take up a post near a corner of the desk. He could hear new voices drawing closer from inside the building. Whomever their attackers were, they definitely knew that he and Chin were there. With the help of the drone, they'd absolutely become targets, proven when an incendiary exploded just outside their barricade. The walls to the office shook from this new assault and more grayish-white ash rained down from the ceiling, the tinkle of glass ending on a dire broken note.

Danny's final glance towards his injured partner, somewhat protected by the length of his long office couch, was fraught with a heightened sense of fear as yet another incendiary was discharged and the outer wall of the office disintegrated as if made of matchsticks.

~ to be continued ~