Once again, I should be working on Cat and Mouse, but I have this idea in my head that just won't leave me alone. I promise to update my other story soon! And then I will most probably be on hiatus for I don't know how long. I will try to finish my other story, but I do have surgery on October 2nd so don't hate me if I don't update right away!
"You don't write, you don't call. We missed you." Kono said as Steve pulled into a warm embrace. They broke apart and beamed at one another. Then he turned to Chin and they hugged, clapping each other on the back. Steve was home. It was over. Wo Fat was behind bars and the day was saved. So why did he feel like it was all wrong? It was when he saw the officer leading Wo Fat to the blue and white that he realized Danny wasn't there to book him. Danny wasn't there…
"Where's Danny?" Steve asked, looking at the cousins. They're faces darkened.
"He left earlier today and we haven't heard from him since. He was going to go meet a contact to discuss Anna Douglas, but it should have been quick. An hour tops. We've been calling him, but he's not answering. Duke said they found the Camaro with his phone, gun, and badge still inside." Chin said, his voice filled with concern. Steve rubbed a hand over his face.
"God…" Steve breathed. That fast he was Commander McGarrett again, head of Five-0 leading a high stakes investigation. "Chin, I want a full SOC unit to process the Camaro and everything around it. Make sure they check security cameras. Kono, put out a BOLO for Danny and get a few units posted with Rachel and Grace. Do we have a description of this contact? Did Danny say anything about him?" They shook their heads.
"He got a call and said he had to go. It was right after he made quite the scene at the CIA office here making a big deal over Anna Douglas. That was all." Steve sighed and pushed a hand through his messy hair. Right now, he really needed Danny.
"Okay, I'm heading over the CIA office to see what I can find. Call me the moment you get anything." With that, they ran off to their cars to make calls and get the ball rolling to find their friend.
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Steve sat in his car outside the CIA office. He had cleaned up quickly. Just enough to be presentable, though he still looked like hell. The long night had rolled on ceaselessly into another long day. He studied the building. It looked normal enough from the outside, but he knew that there was more to this place than met the eye. He got out of the car. Despite the day he'd had, adrenaline and the pressing need to find his partner washed away any trace of exhaustion. Making himself look as intimidating as possible, he walked into the office. It wasn't much, just a bunch of cubicles with a few offices on the back wall. He flashed his badge, effectively silencing the guards as he walked straight into the man in charge, Agent Kendrick's, office. The man looked up.
"Commander McGarrett." He said. He stood, but did not offer his hand. "What can I do for you?"
"Detective Williams. He was here earlier and he hasn't been or heard from since." Steve said. His tone was flat, but his eyes flashed dangerously.
"As my staff and security camera's will verify, Detective Williams left around one yesterday afternoon."
"Cut the bullshit." Steve said harshly. "If you know me, then you know who I am and what I did prior to Five-0. You know that I know that cameras can be manipulated and employees can be bought, bribed, or threatened. Now, I'll ask you again. Where is Detective Williams?" Steve spoke slowly, but each word dripped venom. Kendrick stepped back in an almost unconscious display of submission.
"Detective Williams," he said, a little less confidently now, "left by himself yesterday. We were glad to be rid of him honestly. He was causing a disturbance and I very nearly had him escorted out." Steve sneered. What a prick, Steve thought. He stepped closer to Kendrick and lowered his tone to a menacing growl.
"If I find out you're lying to me, your job is the least of your worries." Steve turned on his heel and left the building. Nothing. Back inside the confines of his truck (though he much prefered the sleek Camaro that reminded him of Danny), Steve banged his fists against the wheel. He could almost feel and invisible clock ticking away the seconds they had left to find Danny. He drove back to the Palace in silence.
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Danny awoke to the harsh lights of the interrogation room glaring down at him with blinding, cold light. He squeezed his eyes shut tight against the sudden spike of pain lancing through his skull, then opened them wearily. Two large men entered his makeshift prison. One held his gun at the ready, the other held a nearly empty bottle of water. The second man threw his head back roughly and poured the last bit of water down Danny's parched throat, nearly drowning him. While he is still choking, the agents leave. Between the lack of food and water and the beatings, Danny is exhausted. He flops his head down against his chest, knowing that Kendrick will be down any minute to see just how much he knows.
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Steve pushed open the familiar glass doors he had missed so much and entered the Five-0 offices. However, he didn't feel the joy of returning home like he should have. Instead, it felt wrong without Danny. Danny was his right hand, his fresh eyes, and his reality check. Without his partner, Steve knew he couldn't do this job for long. As soon as he walked in, Chin and Kono's heads snapped up. Kono spoke first.
"Rachel and Grace are safe." Steve felt his shoulders sag a bit in relief. "I have units posted there, but they say all's quiet. I did put out a BOLO like you asked, but no one has seen him yet." Steve nodded, then turned to Chin.
"SOC units say the car is clean as well as the parking garage we found it in. Same for his phone, gun, and badge. Security cameras however, tell a different story." With a deft flick of his hand, Chin called up the surveillance footage and played it for them. They saw Danny step out of the Camaro, removing his personal items himself. After that, he was approached by a large man in his sixties. Once Danny was seated in the large man's car, they could see nothing behind the tinted windows.
"I'm guessing that's his contact…here, let me run a traffic cam trace on that car." Kono said, fingers already flying over the smart table. Steve almost smiled at the thought of how bad Danny was with technology. Almost. They waited several anxious minutes before Kono had something.
"Oooohhh shit." She said.
"What?" Steve asked.
"Well, this car goes back to the CIA office here in Honolulu. I just hacked the CIA's camera's and checked out their thermal imaging. No one left with anyone but themselves. This means Danny's still there." She said, her voice tinged with cautious optimism. Steve gave her a small smile.
"Good work. Let's go get Danny back."
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Danny grunted in pain as yet another blow landed, this time he could feel ribs break.
"How much do you know about Anna Douglas' work with Wo Fat?" Kendrick asked again. Danny had long ago given his answer, but that didn't seem to satisfy the man. Every time he asked Danny the question, Danny told the truth. And every time he told the truth, he was beaten. Each time he would lose consciousness, they would toss a bucket of ice water at him. He shivered in the already frigid room. Mustering up all of his remaining strength, Danny spit of a gob of blood.
"I've told you, you mentally defective asswipe. Whatever you think I know, I don't!" this earned him brass knuckles to the head. Judging by the way his vision swam, he all but guaranteed he had a concussion. The question was repeated ten more times before Danny lost consciousness, and this time, no amount of ice water could rouse the man.
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They tore into the parking lot of the CIA office. HPD quickly cleared the main floor and evacuated all of the staff while Five-0 continued on towards the basement, where they somehow knew their missing teammate was. As they descended, the voices became clearer.
"-if he doesn't know?"
"He does. He's a real smart ass he can lie better than most people who work here." Steve knew that voice. Kendrick, his inner warrior growled, ready to make good on his earlier promise. Steve shoved those feelings back down and continued onward. They came to a small conference room first. Inside were Kendrick and half a dozen agents, all big, all strong. Steve pulled out a flash-bang grenade from his belt and lobbed it into the room, covering his ears and clamping his eyes shut as he did so. As an added precaution, he fired random shots from his beanbag gun into the room. All seven men dropped instantly. While they rolled around on the floor, temporarily blind and deafened, Steve, Chin, and Kono slipped into the haze of smoke and cuffed the agents. Then Steve hauled Kendrick out into the hallway and pulled out his Beretta. Getting close to his ear so he could be heard, Steve said "This one's full of hollow-points, now where the hell is Danny?" Steve asked, his calm far more scary than his anger. Whatever bravado Kendrick had stored up to use against Steve, he melted with fear under the ex- SEALs stare. In the end, Kendrick told them all they wanted to know.
"End of the hall! Behind a metal cabinet, there's a secret room. He's in there. Code to get in is five nine five two." Kendrick shouted, still partially deaf from the flash-bang. Without a word, the three team members ran to the hidden door, punched in the code, and burst in the room. There, bruised, bloody, and cuffed to a hard metal chair, sat Danny. He was slumped over, but at the sound of his team's arrival in his little cell, he two hazy blue eyes flickered open eventually focused on his friends. Although they all wanted to be with Danny right then, Chin and Kono knew Steve needed it more than them. Chin went to help arrest the agents in the conference room and Kono went to call EMS. Steve ran towards Danny. As he gently assessed Danny's many injuries, Danny spoke a few hoarse words.
"See…I kn-knew it. Cargo pants." He whispered weakly, the words like sandpaper in his dry throat. Steve didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the ridiculous but oh-so-Danny statement.
"Yeah, buddy. That's right. How ya doin'?" Steve asked as his probing finger found at least five broken ribs. He had already determined that Danny had a nasty laceration on his temple with a concussion to match. He had felt his rage swell when he saw the bruises that covered Danny's skin. His wrists and ankles had almost no skin left where the cuffs had torn it off. Danny smiled a delirious smile as he began to shiver even more violently.
"'M good."
"Yeah, I'll bet." Steve said sarcastically as he lowered Danny to the ground. Freeing his from the cuffs had to have been painful, but Danny didn't seem to have noticed. "You cold Danno?" Steve asked, noting the shivers wracking his friends cold, wet body.
"Mmmhhhmmm. But s'not so bad. Juss tired." Steve's heart sped up. Covering Danny with a few towels from the corner, he tried his best to keep his friend's attention. Chin leaned in and signaled help would be there in five minutes.
"I know, Danny, and I promise you can sleep soon. Help is on the way. But right now I need you to stay awake for me, can you do that for me?" Danny nodded.
"Kay…" And Danny did stay awake. Right up until the moment he was loaded into the ambulance. As per usual, they took up their customary spots in the waiting room. Kono paced, Chin jiggled a leg and asked a nurse every ten minutes about Danny, and Steve just sat there, completely still. When the doctor came out, they were pleased to hear that while he would need time to rest and recover, Danny would be okay. They sat with his the rest of the day. That evening, Danny decided to grace them with his presence. The moment he stirred and his eyes began to flutter open, Steve was bent over the bed.
"Hey Danno, can you open your eyes for us?" Steve asked encouragingly. A moment later, two ice blue eyes locked onto Steve's. A lot of unspoken words passed between them such as, 'how are you?', 'we are going to talk about that cut on your face Steven', 'I missed you', and 'thanks for saving me'. In the end however, Danny just settled on something simple.
"So how was your vacation?" he asked with a grin.
The End! I hope you guys like it! Two things. Before today I did not know that BOLO stood for Be On the Look Out, so I just wanted to let ya'll know that too. Also, for those of you who don't know, beanbag rounds are fired from special guns and they are designed to hurt, not kill their targets. I tried to stay as true to the original story line of the episode, but please accept the changes I had to make. As always, I hope you enjoyed this product of my overactive imagination at midnight. Please leave me a review! Auf Wiedersehen!