Hey guys!This new story comes completely unexpected. It was born while I was working for the next chapter of All for one, a story in which each chapter is a different oneshot, when I noticed it was getting too big... so I have decided to post it separately instead. As it was originally planned as a oneshot, the first part may seem rushed, but I warn you: I haven't finished it yet, so updates may be slow (or not, depending on my muse and my free time). Right now, I only have the first three chapters, so I'll post the second one when I have the fourth one finished.

This story is set in season 2, so Malia is still alive (although I'm not sure if she'll be making an appearance), and there's no Grover; also, Charlie has already been borned. For those of you who hate Rachel, stop reading right here, right now or you may get really angry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0. All rights belong to their respective owners.

CHAPTER 1: INSTINCT

The sky was grey as the two partners got out of the silver Camaro and headed to the victim's house. There was no rain, no unbearable wet weather. It was too calm, as it is always before a storm. The atmosphere felt weird, and even though Steve didn't say anything, he could feel it too. His guts were telling him to turn around and call for back up, but instead he shook his head and stood in front of the door, waiting for the widow to open it after his partner knocked and announced their presence. He was being ridiculous, he thought, he was just tired and he would stop feeling that way after sleeping for a full night with no interruptions, whenever that would be. Two minutes later, a woman in her mid-forties with messy long brown hair and big brown eyes with big purple bags under them opened the door and stared at them with a serious but sad face.

"Mrs. Graham" asked Steve. The woman nodded. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarret, from Five-0. This is my partner, Detective Danny Williams" he said pointing at Danny with one hand.

"We're very sorry for your loss, ma'am" said his partner, all empathy and professionalism, with a serious expression, showing concern and grief. "We understand this is difficult, but we'd like to ask you some questions. It would only take some minutes, I promise"

The woman, who had said no word yet, examined carefully the two officers. She had known that would be happening some time soon since she found her husband's cold corpse in the basement, but it didn't mean it was going to be easier. She could fear tears forming in her eyes again as she let the men in. She followed them silently after closing the door. She nervously glanced around the house before focusing on her guests.

"Please, take a seat. Would you like some drink?"

"No, thank you, ma'am, we're fine" answered Steve politely, while he and Danny obeyed her and took a seat on the couch.

He noticed the woman's shaking hands and how she was trying to hide it by putting them inside the pockets of her trousers and smiled at her sympathetically. He glanced at Danny; when he saw his partner almost-imperceptible nod, he knew he had noticed it too. The woman took a seat on the arm chair in front of them; she looked as if she was going to start crying any minute. He cleared his throat, but before he could say anything, his partner had taken the initiative.

"Mrs. Graham, we're sorry for what happened to your husband. But this is very important to find out who was behind his murder"

"I understand. Please, call me Astrid" she said while she took a tissue out of one of her pockets and cleaned the tears of her eyes and face.

"Alright, Astrid. Please, tell us how you found Barney"

During the next ten minutes, the woman explained everything he remembered to the blonde Detective and his partner. She answered question after question, and she felt so mentally exhausted she was glad they were finally over. Reliving everything again made her impossible to hide the pain, but she could at least explain everything she could to the two men so they could get out of her house sooner; the sooner the better.

She was leading the two men towards the door when one of them, the tall one, stopped, turned back and looked at her with a bit of embarrassment.

"Is something wrong, Commander?" She asked, unconsciously biting her lip.

"I... uh..." Steve looked at Danny, who was looking at him with a confused face and an arched brow, before looking at Astrid again. "May I use your bathroom, please?"

Danny rolled his eyes and sighed but thankfully remained silent, staying next to the door. Astrid nodded and raised his arm to point with one of them to somewhere in the corridor.

"Third door to the right"

Steve nodded thankfully and hurried to the bathroom; he shouldn't have drunk so much coffee, but that night he had slept no more than four hours and he needed to be awake to focus all his senses on the case. The relief he felt once he arrived to the bathroom on time could not be expressed with words, and he relaxed and closed his eyes when he felt the coffee getting out of his bladder.

Danny could have said so many things to Steve that he decided not to say anything, at least while they were in front of the victim's wife, or she could wonder what kind of men were carrying out the investigation. She was so quiet that she would probably complain to HPD or whoever instead of them, and the whole task force would be questioned because the urinary problems of a certain Neanderthal. So instead, he decided to keep his mood at bay and leave the ranting for later when they were inside the car he owned but his partner never let him drive.

He noticed the woman was in front of him, looking nervously from the window, to the door to him. Maybe she was waiting for someone? It was not uncommon to have the whole neighborhood offering their condolences after such a tragic loss, especially if the victim and the family were dear to the community. But what intrigued him the most was the fact that the woman looked nervous, and had been biting her lips almost since they began the questioning. He didn't talk to Steve about that, not in front of her, but he knew he had also seen it. Astrid Graham was hiding something.

"Are you okay, Astrid?"

"Of course not, Detective. And please, call me Astrid"

"Yeah, of course, Astrid. Sorry, that was inappropriate"

"No problem" she said without even looking at him. Instead, she was looking worryingly through the window and at the clock that was hanging on the wall. "I think you should go"

Danny raised his eyebrow and looked through the window too, trying to find whatever the woman was so nervously looking for, but he only saw one orange SUV that hadn't been there before. The woman cupped his face with his hands and turned to look at Danny.

"Please, Detective, tell your partner to hurry up and go"

The woman looked horrified but Danny was only seeing a young adult of about seventeen years old getting out of the car. Still, the woman looked horrified. He tried to get nearer the window, but he only caught a glimpse of the boy before the woman closed the curtains. Enough was enough. The woman had looked nervous from the beginning, but he got even more nervous when he saw that boy getting near them and the house.

Danny's instincts were telling him that they had already found out what the woman had been hiding the whole time. With one hand, he told the woman to stay behind him while, with the other, he had already grabbed his gun and was pointing with it at the door.

Jason Graham was in a particularly good mood. He had felt that way since he had gotten up that morning, and he had felt even better when he had time to put some order in the basement before going to work. When his shift at a local children store ended, he got inside his car and startled whistling a silly song he couldn't completely remember instead of turning on the radio. Despite his particular appreciation for music that apparently almost nobody shared, he tolerated the commercial rubbish that was heard nowadays... But the advertisements were too much. They drove him crazy. And, in days like that, when he felt the happiest man on earth, it was the last thing he needed.

However, he stopped whistling when he saw the silver car outside his house. He had had all day to assimilate he would have to tolerate the presence of some visitors; he had had that in mind as he saw the light fading in Barney's eyes. But that silver car looked like no one he was familiar with, the only one being his Uncle Ted's old van. Whose was it?

His smile had faded by the time he had gotten out of his car. He noticed the curtains, that weren't closed a minute ago, and he furrowed his brows. His mom was definitely not alone. However, he knew he had to do as if it was just another day. So he forced himself to put a neutral face while he took his keys and opened the door. Or so he tried. When he saw his mother behind the man with the gun pointed at him, her guilty face being protected by the other man's calmed determination, he grunted furiously.

"You couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you?" He said to her angrily. His day had started as a good one, but he was slowly starting to loose his temper.

"Calm down, Jason. Put your hands where I can see them" replied Danny with a warning.

"Jason, honey, I'm so sorry, I'm..." She whispered, with tears in her eyes.

"The hell you are!" Jason screamed, shaking violently. "So that's it, huh? You're turning your back on your only son" It was unbelievable. It felt as a dream, as a crazy stupid dream. He laughed hysterically while his hand disappeared on his back. Before he could grab his gun, the blonde man made him jump when he shoot to the floor, next to his foot. "What the fuck, man?!"

"I won't fail next time"

The three people in the room remained where they were without moving a single muscle, waiting for the perfect opportunity for the next move. Danny's would come if Jason raised his hands so he could cuff him and take him to the car and from there to the palace before handing him to HPD. Jason was waiting for a distraction, one that his mother could give him but didn't seem able to because she was too busy crying and feeling miserable, that could help him to get outside the house, to his car and from there to where he wanted to go.

"What the hell is going on here?" Steve had just got out of the bathroom and arrived to the living-room to see his partner pointing his gun to a young boy, whereas Mrs. Graham seem only capable of crying more than before. "Danny?" He demanded his partner, getting closer to him

"Ah, Steven, I'm so glad you could finally join us!" Grunted his partner. "Look what you've gotten us into!" He joked, turning his eyes one second from Jason to roll them. If his partner would have spent more time inside that bathroom, he would be worried. One thing was sure: Super-Seal must have a super bladder!

But one second was all it took. When Danny looked at Jason again, the boy was pointing a gun at him.

"Thanks for coming"

The moment Danny, Steve or Astrid wanted to react, it was a moment too late. Danny heard a woman screaming behind him and his partner saying his name at the same time a loud bang sent him backwards and he felt himself falling to the floor.

Surprise was a mild word to express what Steve felt when he got out of the bathroom and saw his partner, with a crying Mrs. Graham behind him watching the scene with horrified eyes, pointing his gun at a young boy, presumably the Grahams' son given the physical similarities.

"What the hell is going on here?" He understood nothing. According to Astrid, his son, Jason, had always been a good boy. But he knew his partner would never point a gun at someone who was good. He got close to him. "Danny?"

"Ah, Steven, I'm so glad you could finally join us! Look what you've gotten us into!"

He sighed and shook his head. Why did Danny always think unexpected things like those were his fault? Sure, he could have had Danny's back if he had gone to the bathroom before leaving the palace, but he didn't have to at that time. Or he could have also drunk less coffee, but Steve minus coffee equal zombie. Coffee was the only thing keeping him from falling asleep while being still on his feet, so he wasn't going to apologize for that, not even to his grumpy partner.

But he didn't have time to answer. As soon as he focused his attention on what was going on in the room, he saw Jason with his hands on a gun pointed at Danny, who looked as surprised as him. By the time he grabbed his, it was too late.

"DANNY!" he screamed when he saw his friend, who had been standing right next to him until that moment, falling awkwardly to the floor after Jason pulled the trigger.

That was the moment when Steve should have told Jason to drop the weapon and interlock his fingers while he let Danny cuff him. However, this time was different. This time, Danny had been shot before being able to cuff their killer, and his shirt, previously white, was getting redder and redder. This time, Steve didn't hesitate. He pointed his gun at him and pulled the trigger before the young man could react.

When Jason fell backwards with his eyes closed, his mother fell on her knees letting out a heart-rending scream.

"JASON!" she crawled towards him at gently took his body between her arms, kissing his friend sweetly while she saw, with tears in her eyes, the blood coming out from his son's neck. "You killed him! My sweet boy, my loving baby! You killed him"

He didn't even bother to tell her he was only unconscious, he had just knocked him out. When he looked at Danny, he knew Jason's shot had done more harm than his. He got on his knees, closer to his partner, his gun already holstered. A single gunshot wound on his chest, filling everything with blood, was the responsible for draining the color of his partner's face and making his pulse erratic. And yet Danny's strong nature hadn't allowed him to loose consciousness just yet.

Steve put his hands on Danny's chest quickly to prevent more blood from getting out, but it wasn't a magical remedy; although at a slower pace, Steve's hands were soon full of red.

"Hey buddy" he smiled at Danny when he noticed his partner's eyes on him. "Relax. Everything is gonna be okay"

"You... You're such a... terrible liar, S-Steven" his laugh turned into a painful cough that stained his lips with red.

Steve took one hand from Danny's wound and slipped it inside his pocket to reach for his phone. He didn't care if his clothes got red too. Danny would die if he didn't make that call.

"C'mon, Danny, don't talk. Save your breath. C'mon, Danny. Stay with me"

He tried not to think he could die too even if he did it while he pressed the keys, but his heart fell to the ground when he saw his eyelids closing.

"This is McGarrett. My partner has been shot on the chest. I need an ambulance on 66 Kauhale Street, as fast as you can. "

He would have called Chin and Kono, but he discarded that option when he noticed Danny's too pale face, his lips turning blue. He dropped his phone and pressed his two hands hard on Danny's chest, who didn't even react that time.

"C'mon, D, don't do this to me. Help is on its way. Stay with me, Danny."

He forced himself to keep it together and stay focused on slowing down the rapid flow of Danny's blood, but he couldn't completely make it. In his head, Danny's last words before being shot were echoing too loudly. 'Look what you've gotten us into!'

Danny had been right. He always told him he was a trouble magnet, as if he had some sort of super power that allowed danger to follow and find him. But that danger had not found him, but his partner. He remembered the uneasiness he had felt in his guts when they were getting out of the car and nearing the house, how he had ignored it because he had thought it felt that way because he was just tired.

Unconsciously, he moved one of his hands from Danny's wound and placed it on his neck to check his pulse. It was there, but it was so weak he didn't feel anything at first.

"C'mon, Danny! Keep breathing. I'm right here. Stay with me, buddy"

He felt something warm and wet on his cheeks, and he forced himself to regain the composure. Crying meant weakness, and Danny didn't need that right now. He ignored the woman, who hadn't moved and was still sobbing with his son between her arms, and concentrated on placing both hands on Danny's chest. The bleeding was going to stop, but he felt the stream going slower when he blocked the hole of the wound. Or maybe it was because his partner had already lost too much blood...

Crying meant weakness, but he would have cried when he heard the sirens of the ambulance getting louder with each passing minute. He heard the movement outside and smiled to an unconscious Danny.

"I told you, Danny, help has come. Just keep breathing, buddy"

He was happy help has finally arrived, that someone could help Danny much better than him. However, voices in his head kept telling him that it was his fault that Danny had been shot. Astrid's mumbling whispers didn't help either.

"My boy, my sweet baby boy... He should have listened, I warned him! But they never listen..."