More to the Story

by Faye Dartmouth

Steve just wants an evening to relax, but Danny has other plans. Tag to 1.16.

Title: More to the Story

Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: I am very happy to have new eps again :) Not that I need more plot bunnies, but I really wanted a little more resolution at the end, so this is what I wrote. Much thanks to geminigrl11, who gave me a few of the plot details for this ficlet and provided a beta. Also thanks to sendintheklowns for her beta and cheerleading. And also thanks to moogsthewriter, who seems to inspire me to write even when she's not trying. Any mistakes are my own.

Summary: Steve just wants an evening to relax, but Danny has other plans. Tag to 1.16.

-o-

Steve was tired.

That was probably to be expected, what with running through the rain forest all day, rescuing witnesses and capturing bad guys. And that didn't even begin to capture the rigging of a log to incapacitate a perp or the amount of fluids lost while jogging around in the heat with full camo gear on. And even if he hadn't shown it, reinflating a lung with materials salvaged from a trek in the forest was actually a little stressful, as was gunning it back into civilization to make sure the witness got to testify and all their trouble was worthwhile.

Of course, then finding out that he'd promptly delivered his witness into the hands of the last bad guy on his to do list had gotten his blood flowing again, so by the time Steve finally got home, he was ready for a break.

Navy SEAL or not, a day's work still made him tired, and all Steve wanted was a nice shower and a cold beer.

He was pulling out a fresh shirt from his closet and throwing it on the bed when he heard a noise from the living room.

Pausing, Steve frowned. He tensed for a moment, wondering briefly if he'd underestimated the trail of bad guys in their case. But there was something familiar in the noises and they certainly weren't subtle. The door shut and there was the sound of footfalls on the floor as someone made his way into the kitchen.

With a sigh, Steve came out of his bedroom, shaking his head as he entered the kitchen.

"Seriously, I could bring you up on trespassing charges," Steve said, crossing his arms over his chest as he pinned Danny with a glare.

Danny's eyebrows shot up. He shrugged, turning back to pillage through Steve's cupboards. "Yeah, but that would imply that you are actually aware of such laws when previous experiences shows us that, clearly, you are not."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Glasses are on the left," he said. "But you may as well just grab a bottle."

Danny considered that, closing the cabinet and opening the fridge. He pulled out two beers, holding one out to Steve.

Steve eyed him critically but finally reached out and accepted it. His partner had strange habits, and stopping by for no apparent reason seemed to be one of them. Usually Danny came on business, which didn't make entering without knocking any less weird, but at least that way Steve knew what to expect. As it was, this visit seemed a bit unwarranted, but given the kind of day he knew Danny had had, somehow it wasn't surprising.

"You know," Steve said, popping the cap. "I was going to take a shower."

Danny seemed to look at him for the first time, twisting off his own cap. "What did you do today anyway?" he asked. "Play army in the backyard?"

Steve took a quick swig. "Navy, and no," he said. "We had to track down our missing witness in the rain forest for the better part of the day."

Danny took a drink, brow creased. "You get her back in time?" he asked.

Steve shrugged a little. "Yeah."

Danny cocked his head. "Yeah?"

"It's just, there's more to the story," Steve said blandly. Like killing one suspects and putting the other three in the hospital before almost getting the rest of his team killed in the process. But Steve was all about the means and ends, and no matter what happened along the way, they'd still gotten the job done. Steve was sure Danny had enough to think about without worrying about how close they may have come to disaster.

Danny took a breath and shook his head. With another drink, he swallowed hard. "You know, I really don't think I want to know."

And Steve was pretty sure he didn't want to tell. He was tired as it was and while Danny's rants generally amused him, they also wore him out. Instead he took another drink, giving Danny a once over. "So you going to tell me how your day ended up? I'm not going to have to bail you out for beating Stan, am I?"

"I did not beat Stan," Danny said measuredly.

Steve nodded ruefully, reading between the words with ease. His partner was expressive by nature, and it hadn't taken him long to pick up on the finer nuances of Danno-speak. "But you wanted to, didn't you?"

Danny scowled a little and threw one hand out. "I always want to beat him," he said. "His business dragged my daughter to Hawaii and he continues to try to teach her to be a stuck up member of society with things like private school and tennis lessons."

"And he's married to Rachel," Steve added knowingly.

Both of Danny's hands went out this time. "That has nothing to do with this!"

Steve just nodded, letting Danny do the talking for him. If there was more to Steve's story, there was certainly more to Danny's, and Steve just had to bide his time and let Danny say it when he was ready. Because if he knew Danny - and Steve was pretty confident that he did - it was a story Danny wanted to tell. "I'm sure."

"It doesn't!"

Steve shrugged, because indifference was the best way to inspire a contrary person to talk. "Okay."

Danny's expression was almost apoplectic. "I'm perfectly entitled to resent the man who not only has my wife, but gets to play father to my daughter."

"She's your ex-wife," Steve pointed out, because the slip may not have been quite Freudian, but it still meant something all the same. The tension between Danny and Rachel wasn't just from the fallout of the divorce or the custody issues about Grace; it was because there was still something there - dysfunctional and broken and hard to grasp, but there nonetheless.

Danny's jaw tightened. "Ex-wife," he agreed. "The man who is making love to my ex-wife."

Steve took a drink and went for the obvious. "So was it his fault?"

"Of course it was his fault," Danny replied quickly. His hand flitted through the air. "Little creep was trying to close a deal and got in a little over his head. There were tapes and a corrupt housing commissioner and I took care of it."

It was Steve's turn to stop, waiting for more.

Danny brought his hands in close, playing with his beer. He shook his head. "Son of a bitch is a moron, but he's not dirty," he said.

Steve considered that, watching Danny carefully. If there was anything on Stan to hate, Danny would latch onto it, in a heartbeat. And no one could blame him, all things considered. But for as much as there was between Danny and Rachel, Steve still knew what this was really all about. "And you're sure Grace is safe?"

Danny sighed, blowing out a heavy breath. "I think our not-so-friendly housing commissioner got the message pretty clear."

That new information tweaked Steve's interest. His eyes narrowed.

Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I did nothing as colorful as you did today, so don't worry," he said.

"No tying anyone to the hoods of cars?"

"It was tempting," Danny said with a nod. He lifted one hand. "Very tempting, but after getting a lecture about restraint from you of all people, I figured I should probably keep it in check."

Steve grinned, because there was a lot of truth to that and it gave him great pleasure to hear Danny admit it. "Give me the guy's name anyway when we get to the office tomorrow," he said. "I'll do a little digging."

Danny looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. Okay," he said. He waited a beat, gesturing vaguely again. "Thanks. I mean, for letting me go. I can file it as a personal day-"

Steve waved his hand. "It was Grace," he said. "I get it."

There was something almost vulnerable in Danny's expression until his mouth tightened and he nodded. "That means a lot," he says.

Steve knew the feeling. Knew it in the same way, because Danny had been there when Hesse turned up alive. He had been there when Steve wanted to risk it all by stealing the money and going to the drop. He had been there when Mary had disappeared. Even when they disagreed, Danny was there. For as much as his partner didn't seem capable of shutting up, he sure seemed skilled at keeping his own temper when Steve's was flaring.

Steve inclined his head slightly. "Nothing you haven't done for me," he said.

Danny chuckled, taking a drink. "I've let you go when your ex-wife and daughter were carjacked and then coached you through not killing your ex-wife's current husband?"

Steve took a drink of his own, shaking his head. "No," he said. "But you've pulled me back from the brink when I was ready to go in guns blazing when I shouldn't. You've been my voice of reason."

Danny actually seemed surprised. "You mean you actually listen?"

"I may not always do what you suggest, but I always listen," Steve assured him.

Danny took another swig. "Well, color me surprised," he said. "I helped save Stan's ass, ironed out the kinks in Rachel's marriage, and Steve McGarrett listens to me."

"Now if I could just convince you to stop wearing the tie, wonders really never would cease," Steve cajoled.

"Ha," Danny said sarcastically. "And if you could actually follow police procedure instead of conveniently overlooking it, maybe I would. Do I even want to know what laws you broke today?"

"I didn't break any laws," Steve promised.

"You didn't break any laws," Danny said in clear doubt.

Steve shrugged. "I mean, maybe speeding but we were on official police business."

Danny's eyebrows lifted again. "I'm supposed to believe that you hunted down several perps, saved a witness, and salvaged the entire case against a drug cartel and the worst you did was speed?"

Steve nodded resolutely. "Absolutely."

"How many times did you fire your gun?"

Steve counted in his head, and if he lost count, he wasn't going to admit it. "Just a few times."

"And you killed one suspect?"

"The other three are already recovering," Steve reported, a little proud. Because he'd had cases with much higher body counts in his short tenure as the head of 5-0.

"And how did you incapacitate them?" Danny probed.

"Kono took care of one of them; Chin dealt with the other." With a hard ass kick through a door and a shovel to the head, respectively. But those weren't details Danny needed.

"And the other?"

Steve paused, just for a moment, trying to consider his best options. "You know, I was actually pretty resourceful-"

Danny's expression turned grim. "What did you do?"

"I may have rigged a log," Steve said noncommittally.

Danny's eyes widened. "Rigged a log?"

"It's a common jungle defense tactic," he said. "An ideal way to target your mark without causing too much noise."

"So you rigged a log?" Danny said. "What does that even mean?"

"You take a log and you tie it up with vines and pull it back. You wait for your mark to walk by and let go."

"You took a guy out with a log?"

It hadn't seemed ridiculous when Steve had thought it up. It had been instinct, second nature. Danny's common sense approach to life was often as enlightening as it was surprising to Steve.

Not to mention frustrating. "He's going to be fine," Steve said.

"Except you smashed him with a log!"

"And then I reinflated his lung," Steve said.

Danny threw one hand up, turning away. He laughed. "Of course you did," he said. "You smashed him with a log and then reinflated his lung. Did you consider in all the time it took you to find the log, tie it, and wait for your suspect, that there just might be a better way?"

Steve frowned. "I didn't want to attract attention."

Danny shrugged. "Of course," he said. He looked down, laughing a little. "I wish I could have been there."

Steve was actually surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah," Danny said, meeting his eyes again. "Because then I could have told you to your face just how ludicrous you are."

It was Steve's turn to scowl. "Yes, well, I was the one who had to talk you back from the ledge today," he said.

"I'm not sure you qualify as the one with restraint when you take people out with logs," Danny argued. Then he frowned, squinting and looking closer. "And what is on your face?"

"What?" Steve asked.

"Right there," Danny said, pointing at Steve. "On the side of your nose."

Steve swiped, and his finger came away smudge. "Just some mud."

"Why is there mud on your face?"

"It's good for camouflage."

Danny snorted. "You painted your face with mud."

Steve shrugged. "It's standard procedure."

"For Rambo, maybe."

"So?"

"I'll bet you've been dying for a case like this where you get to play Rambo."

"I was just taking precautions."

Danny snorted. "Did Chin break out the mud?"

Steve frowned. "No, but-"

"Did he survive?"

"Yes, but-"

Danny nodded knowingly. "Definitely Rambo fantasies."

Steve put his drink down on the counter, rocking back on his heels and crossing his arms over his chest. "Rambo was Army."

"I think it's pretty safe to say that insanity runs rampant in all branches of the military," Danny said.

"Well, I would have loved to see you out there with your patent loafers and your tie," Steve shot back. "Talk about poorly dressed."

Danny nodded in concession. "I am proud to say that no, I am never going to be properly dressed for a chase through the rain forest," he said. "Because I, unlike you, am sane."

"You nearly took out your ex-wife's husband," Steve pointed out.

"But I didn't."

"You wanted to."

"But I didn't," Danny said, and then he took a quick drink. "We all have whims - to punch people, to put mud on our faces - but those among us who deny such urges when appropriate are the civilized members of society."

"I'll keep that in mind next time you want to tie someone to the hood of your car."

Danny grinned. "That's a plan then," he said. He paused, taking another drink. Then he gestured toward the door. "I guess I'll let you get back to your cleaning. I didn't realize you had been wearing mud all day."

Steve shrugged. "It probably wouldn't have stopped you."

Danny chortled. "Yeah, probably not," he said. He lifted his drink, finishing it off. He fingered the can before putting it on the counter. He looked up at Steve, the veil of sarcasm lifting again. "Thanks again."

Steve nodded. "I've always got your back, Danno," he said.

"Mud and all," Danny quipped dryly.

"Mud and all," Steve agreed.

"Okay," Danny said, flattening his hands on his pants. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, of course," Steve said. "And we'll check out the housing commissioner, see if anything else turns up."

"Sure thing," Danny said, meandering toward the door. Even from a distance, Steve could hear him say with a snicker, "Rambo."

Steve could only laugh, shaking his head as Danny saw himself out.

Rubbing at his nose, he wiped away some more of the mud. A shower would take care of the rest, but for everything else that mattered in his life, Danny had his back and Steve had his. And no matter how much Steve liked running through the rain forest, he liked that a whole hell of a lot more.