Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. I only wish I had my own Steve.
This was written for a challenge over at gameofcards on Livejournal - the theme was 'three/four/five.' This sort of just...happened. The title is from Through the Ghost by Shinedown.
They always thought it would be one of them who would be the first to go – in fact, Danny was absolutely certain that it would be him. He was always getting shot at, nearly getting blown up seemed like a fairly regular occurrence sometimes. He expected Steve to have to have to go to see Grace and tell her what happened to Danno.
They never expected it to be Steve. Steve existed in a perpetual state of good luck. He got shot at and jumped off roofs and somehow always came out of it with just a scrape or two at worst. He seemed superhuman.
Until he wasn't. Until it was Steve's blood on Danny's hands when he was trying to stop his best friend from bleeding out. Until he bled out and there was nothing any of them could do about it.
The office felt empty without Steve. It made Danny sick to look at Steve's office and know that Steve McGarrett was never walking through that door again. He never once worried about losing Steve in a combat situation. It was Steve. From the moment he stormed into Danny's crime scene and life he always had an answer. He always survived.
It was strange how much Danny missed him. When he met Steve he thought he would not live to see the day he would miss the infuriating Navy SEAL that made his life impossible. Suddenly, he missed the impossible. He missed watching Steve's ridiculous ideas and the smoke bombs and all of the stupid situations they got themselves into – the situations that Steve got him into.
The funeral the state gave him was a blur to Danny. The one that Chin and Kono pull together is, too. It did not seem real. It was one thing when Steve was running off and doing things without telling them – when he disappeared to Japan readily sprang to Danny's mind. It was entirely another when he was gone and never coming back.
The worst was the look on Catherine's face when they told her it was real. She had hoped it was a lie, so that Steve could go undercover or something even more covert.
Danny wanted it to be a lie as much as Catherine did.
It was just the three of them after that. There were other people around, but they were not there in the beginning. For years it was just the four of them, even when Lori Weston was part of the team. It was them. And suddenly there wasn't really a them anymore. Not without Steve. The task force remained intact and they still worked, but the heart of the team was gone. Without Steve, they were broken. They worked, but nothing could begin to fill the space his death left. They were efficient, but mechanical.
It killed Danny a little every time he walked into the Five-0 offices. He had hated Hawai'i when he arrived. He had hated every single thing about being there except for when he got to spend time with Grace. Steve had not helped matters. He had spent weeks wishing Steve would disappear or let him go back to HPD. Somehow Steve had ended up his best friend. He had helped Danny build a life on Oahu and he was the first person Danny truly trusted to have his back since Grace Tillwell died. He trusted Chin and Kono to have his back, too, but it was not the same.
It almost seemed like a fairytale – one full of dead bodies and guns and fairytale endings for the people they saved. It was charmed. It seemed like it would never end. It was not an easy life, but they were happy. They did so much good and then it all just crashed down.
People shot at them less without Steve. They did not get their guys as much as they did before. His replacement did not work out. The new guy did not even last two months before he was transferred somewhere else. It was just the three of them again.
They lost their way without Steve. Danny was not sure they would ever really find it again.