Disclaimer: Hawaii Five-O and its characters do not belong to me, and I am not profiting from this story.
The big black Mercury screeched to a halt in its usual place in front of the Iolani Palace and Steve McGarrett emerged and headed for the stone stairway. He paused at the bottom, looking up the steps with a sigh – were they always that steep? Moving like a tired old man, he made his way to the top.
"Merry Christmas, Mr. McGarrett!" a cheery voice called out to him as he walked in the front door.
He acknowledged the greeting with a wave and a wan smile, not really looking at the woman. Who was she, anyway, and how did she know him? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the front desk secretary leaning over her countertop and shushing the woman, and it came to him – this was Mrs. Wung, the secretary's mother. She brought cookies occasionally to share with everyone in the Palace. Everyone enjoyed the treat, but Kono and Danny were particularly verbose in their appreciation of the baked goods…Danny. Steve's shoulders drooped as his thoughts were inevitably pulled back to his missing detective. He glanced over his shoulder as he reached the top of the stairs and saw that Lana must have shared the news with her mother, as Mrs. Wung had lost all her merriment.
He trudged into the office and ignored the way Jenny's face first lit up with hope and then filled with poorly concealed disappointment. "Any word from Kono or Chin?" he asked. Not that it was likely anything would have occurred in the two minutes since he'd left his car, but in this business you never knew.
With a shake of her head, she replied quietly, "Nothing, boss."
"All right. I'll be in my office going over the witnesses' statements again."
"Boss," Jenny said hesitantly. "It's been two days. Do you think he could be…well, I mean-"
Steve smiled at her. "Don't give up on him yet, Jenny – this is Danno we're talking about! He's been in tight spots before and has proven himself to be strong and resourceful. And for our part, you know we've got all of our resources and those of HPD focused on finding Danny. We'll find him, Jenny. Just don't give up hope."
Looking a little brighter, Jenny nodded and turned back to her work.
Steve entered his office and shut the door behind him. Crossing over to his desk and dropping heavily into his chair, he rubbed a hand wearily over his face. He was glad he had encouraged Jenny, and to some extent he believed what he had told her, but he knew deep down that even with all the resources Five-0 and HPD were throwing at the case, they could still fail. Oh, they'd find Danny, there was no question of that – but when, and would he still be alive? Every passing hour decreased their chances of finding the missing detective alive. In fact, they had no proof that Danny had survived even his first hour with the two bank robbers who had taken him hostage two days previously.
As he reached for his tape recorder, the headline of the daily newspaper caught his eye: "FIVE-O DETECTIVE STILL MISSING." The article began, "This Christmas Eve, many in Honolulu are saying a prayer for the safe return of Detective Danny Williams, who is still missing two days after his heroic actions in the Honolulu Bank. He is presumably being held hostage by the two masked bank robbers who also got away with three million dollars. All the witnesses agree…"
Steve stopped reading there – he knew exactly what all the witnesses had said. In fact, he could recite their statements almost word for word, but he was going to go through them one more time, hoping to pick up on some clue that he might have missed the first ten times. He hit the playback button and sat back to listen to the first woman, a young bank teller, tremblingly tell her tale. When she got to the part about how the men had first picked her as their hostage, but had been talked around by Danny into taking him instead, Steve shook his head as his confused emotions chased each other around: first, frustration – why did Danny have to be so selfless? But second, Steve couldn't push away a deep sense of pride in his young friend.
The security guard's gravelly voice came on next; he was able to provide more specific details about the robbers than anyone else, but the subject he lingered on the longest was how Danny's calm attitude and words had kept the victims from panicking and the robbers from shooting anyone.
One by one, the witnesses made their statements, and again, Steve came up blank. He turned the recorder off with more force than necessary and barely stopped himself from pounding his fist down on the machine. Yes, Danny was a hero – but would he have to die a hero because Steve couldn't piece together the clues to find him? Was he already dead? Many men would kill for a lot less than three million dollars.
The ringing of the phone startled him. He snatched up the receiver and snapped, "McGarrett."
"Steve? It's Kono. We found him, boss."
Steve hesitated. Usually the big Hawaiian's voice was easy to read, but right now he couldn't tell for sure what was going on. "Is he—?" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. The moment of truth had come, and he unconsciously held his breath.
"He's okay, Steve," Kono replied, and now Steve could tell that he was grinning. "Tired, hungry and a little bit roughed up, but nothing too serious. They left him tied up in a little old shack way up in the hills. Guess they figured that would give them enough of a head start to make it off the island. Danny finally got loose early this morning and had to hike for a couple of hours to get to the road. HPD picked him up a few minutes ago. Me and Chin are bringing him to the hospital now just to make sure he's as okay as he says he is."
Steve let out his breath in a long, slow sigh, feeling the tension in his shoulders finally begin to ease for the first time in two days. "Good, Kono, very good," he said softly. He closed his eyes, suddenly realizing how tired he was – when had he last slept? "All right, I'll meet you there." He started to set the phone down, but quickly lifted it back up. "Oh, and Kono…" A big smile slowly spread across his face. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Steve," Kono replied.
Steve hardly remembered the walk from his office to his car – it was just a blur of happy faces. First Jenny's – she had clearly listened in on the call – and then an officer in the hallway who had heard the news over the radio. The officer added that thanks to clues Danny had picked up while held captive, the robbers had just been arrested before they could board a flight to the mainland. Then Lana and Mrs. Wung, whose expressions brightened hopefully as soon as they spotted Steve and turned positively radiant when he wished them a Merry Christmas on his way past the front desk. At the hospital, he was met by a beaming Kono and Chin; he could no longer tell by looking at them that they had been running around the island for two days straight looking for clues. Finally, he stepped through the doorway of the examination room and paused to take in the face he'd been beginning to think he'd never see again.
Danny was conversing with the doctor, and Steve studied the young detective critically – a black eye, scratches and bruises on his arms, bandaged wrists. His posture showed that he was worn out, but he had enough energy to be swinging his legs as he sat on the edge of the exam table. Suddenly he glanced toward the door and his face lit up with a tired grin.
"Hey, Steve!" he exclaimed, his light blue eyes communicating the stress he'd been through and the relief that it was over.
Steve stepped forward and rested a hand on Danny's shoulder, needing the reassurance that his friend was really all right. He hadn't stopped smiling in the past ten minutes, but he finally felt completely happy as he looked straight into Danny's eyes and said, "Merry Christmas, Danno."