Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to post anything until June, but I couldn't help it! It hasn't even been two weeks since I posted my last chapter for 'Remaking Lives' and my mind has just been on FanFiction overload. I keep thinking of plot lines I could do for new stories. This is one of five ideas that I concocted this fortnight. revision is not helping matters, either; I have spent all of today and yesterday making a bloody timeline with key dates and events from my entire History course. It needs to go through Weimar Germany, Nazi Germany, the Cold War and Vietnam, which means it has to go from 1918 to 1989, and I'm only at 1951! I'm really rapidly getting sick of it, but it will help. After all, it doesn't really do if you're in an exam and you say this happened in this year, when in reality it happened like five years earlier.
Okay, so enough of me ranting. I figured I'd write this oneshot just to relieve myself of some of the tension, and to know that I've at least got one of my ideas out there. So, here you go, and I hope you enjoy.

Danny stared out the window despondently as he drove through the streets of Honolulu. He didn't have any particular location in mind; he just had to keep driving. He had to keep his thoughts at bay.

They had received a case that day. A teenage girl had gone missing. She was the fourth in a line of similar disappearances, and the previous three girls had all turned up dead. The team had eventually managed to track the girl and the killer down, but when they tried to arrest him, he shot the girl then himself.

They'd all felt a sense of failure, as they had promised the girl's mother that they would do everything they could to bring her daughter back safe. But apparently everything they could have done was not enough.

Danny felt as though that were a recurring theme in his life: everything he could do was not enough; not enough for anybody.

It had not been enough for Melanie Hewitt today.

It hadn't been enough for Jacob Browning, Annabelle Ellinson, Colin Philips, Marcus Planter… Families back in New Jersey that he had not been able to bring closure to.

It hadn't been enough to keep his brother from becoming a wanted fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list.

It hadn't been enough to keep his marriage with Rachel together. He had tried – God, how he'd tried – to make things work, but Rachel had been unrelenting; they were over forever, as far as she was concerned.

It never seemed to be enough for Grace. Try as hard as he might, Danny always felt like he disappointed his daughter. He always seemed to be cancelling their time together because he got called into work. He didn't have money like Step-Stan did to provide her with everything she wanted. Danny wondered how long it would be before Rachel used her scum-sucking lawyers to completely cut off his visitation. Before Stan took over as Grace's father. Before Grace forgot him…

Sometimes, Danny wondered why he bothered. After all, what would he be remembered for after he was gone? Possibly one of the original members of Five-0, on the assumption that Five-0 would still be around when he was gone, but Danny thought it was more likely that he'd be remembered as the loud-mouthed haole mainlander whom everyone hated.

He'd be remembered in his family, certainly. But for being the first person in his family to end up getting a divorce. His grandparents had been married for 62 years before they passed away. His parents had been married for 38 years. But Danny? He hadn't even managed to make it to ten years with Rachel.

Danny would be remembered, not for what he had achieved, but rather for what he had failed.

Why did he bother?

Danny turned a corner onto another street. It was nearing evening now. The sun was low in the sky, the edge just touching the horizon. Danny squinted ahead, reaching up to pull the sun visor down. As he did, there was his reason.

Tucked behind the corner of the mirror was a picture of him and Grace with Steve, Chin and Kono at Steve's house. It was the first barbecue that all of them had been there. Kono had insisted on a photo, and had made copies for them all, but not before adding a caption underneath.

"'Ike aku, 'ike mai; kôkua aku, kôkua mai; pela iho la ka nohana 'ohana." Recognise others, be recognised; help others, be helped; such is a family relationship, Kono had later told him the translation.

Danny's attention was diverted to his phone ringing. He pulled over to the side of the road and took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the caller ID.

"Hey, Steve," he answered, and listened to his partner's voice. "Sure. Steaks sound good… Yep. I'll see you in a bit." Danny hung up and put his phone back in his pocket, smiling as he pulled back into traffic.

Maybe he could do enough.

It was short, I know, but I feel better now that I've got something out now. I don't know if that'll be the last thing before June or not. I'm not getting into the habit of writing regularly again; this is just a quick little tension reliever. I'm going to draft the next chapter for 'Remaking Lives' over the exam period, so it'll be ready for you all when they're finished.
So, anyway, drop me a review for this, and... yeah. Bye x