Broken – Chapter 2
"Well I'm sorry you won't be able to join us for beers tonight, but I completely understand you wanting to check in on Danny." Lou told Steve as they descended the stairway of the Five-O headquarter building after what seemed like to Steve, an excruciatingly long day.
"Wish I could be there. Believe me. It sounds much more enjoyable than going another couple rounds with Danny but, you know…" Steve stopped and turned to face Lou. "What can I do?"
"I know." Lou replied sympathetically. "You're really worried about him. Aren't you?"
Steve nodded.
"I didn't want to let on to Kono but yeah- I really am. These past few weeks he's just been completely off."
"Well, you would know. You know him best."
"I mean, just between you me, Danny's always been a little anxiety prone but recently he's taken it to whole new level. And when he's not stressing out, he's just completely out of it. Today for instance…I asked him to go the lab and not even five minutes later, he had completely forgotten. It was like we never even had the conversation."
"I heard." Lou replied.
Steve shook his head.
"Anyway…I'm sure he is going to be thrilled to see me tonight after the blowout we had today but he is just going to have to deal with it, because I am not leaving until we sort this out.
Lou smiled and placed a hand on his new bosses shoulder.
"Well, good luck with that. And uh…I should let you go because it sounds like you are going to have a long night ahead of you."
"God I hope not." Steve moaned and turned toward to the doors.
"Hey Steve."
"Yeah." Steve replied, turning back to Lou."
"You're a good friend. Danny's lucky to have you."
"Thanks Lou."
Steve turned back and exited to the parking lot. He was halfway to his truck when he heard a familiar voice calling to him from across the lot.
"Commander McGarret! Commander McGarrett!"
Steve turned and saw Officer Pua Kai jogging toward him from across the lot.
"Pua." Steve said once the officer was close enough to hear him. "How many times do I have to tell you? You don't have to call me Commander McGarrett. OK? Steve is fine."
The way Pua smiled you would have though Steve had just offered him a million dollars.
"Thanks Commander…I mean, Steve."
"No problem. Now what's up?"
"I was just wondering if everything was OK with Detective Williams.
If one more person asks me that today, I'm gonna flip out. Steve was tempted to reply.
"Why do you ask?" He replied instead.
"Well I ran into him in the evidence archives last week and he looked awful."
"You ran into Danny in the evidence archives?"
"Yeah." Pua replied. And off Steve's obvious look of confusion he added "I know. You are probably wondering what a rookie cop was doing in the evidence archives."
Actually, Steve was more concerned with what Danny was doing in the evidence archives last week. He had no reason to be there. At least not that Steve was aware of. But before he could reply, Pua continued.
"I'm helping some Detectives over in HPD with a cold case they're working on." He proclaimed proudly.
"Really?" Steve replied, trying for Pua's sake to sound impressed.
"Really. I don't know if I told you this, but I want to be a Detective one day."
"Yeah, you may have mentioned it once or twice."
Or three or four or five times…
"Who knows? Maybe I'll even work Five-0 one day!"
"You know what?" Steve smiled and slapped Pua's shoulder. "We'd be lucky to have you buddy."
"Well thank you Commander. That really means a lot coming from you."
"You don't have to thank me Pua. It's the truth." Steve insisted.
"Anyway, back to Detective Williams. When I ran into him he really looked…I don't know…like he was sick or something. And if you don't mind me saying so, a little unkempt. Which was surprising, you know? Cause Detective Williams in known within HPD as always being so put together. Did you know that when he first transferred here from the mainland he used wear ties to work? I mean…who does that?"
Steve laughed and shook his head.
"Yeah, I remember. It took us almost a year to get him to lose the tie when he joined the task force."
"So you know what I'm talking about then. It just seemed very unlike him."
"I'm sure there is nothing to worry about Pua." Steve lied. "But I appreciate your concern."
"Well Detective Williams has always been very good to me. I'd hate to think there was something wrong with him."
"Well, like I said, I'm sure it's nothing. But I'll keep my eye on him."
"I know you will. Have a good night Commander."
"You too Pua."
Steve gave the young the young officer another friendly slap on the shoulder before turning and heading quickly to his truck. He wanted desperately to get out of there before he got sidetracked any further. He needed to get to Danny's house and get this figured out.
Steve pulled into Danny's driveway and parked his truck behind Danny's car. He looked up to the house which was completely dark except for a faint light coming from Danny's living room and briefly considered putting the truck in reverse and leaving this whole confrontation until tomorrow. But then his conversation with Pua would replay itself in his head and he knew had had to go in. It was one thing for Danny's Ohana in the Five-0 task force to notice some unusual behavior. But Pua didn't know Danny that well. If he noticed, who else had?
Steve hopped out of the truck and headed toward the front door. When he got there he paused a moment, then knocked. He gave Danny a minute to answer and when he didn't he knocked again.
"Danny. It's Steve, open up."
Still nothing.
"Come on Buddy, I know you're in there. We need to talk. Open up."
Nothing.
Steve sighed and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He knew Danny was home. It wasn't his night to have Grace and the only a person he hung out with other than Steve and the rest of the Five-0 team with any regularity was Amber. And even those outings were coming few and far between.
He knocked again.
"Danny if you don't open the door, I'm going to use my key."
Still nothing.
"Fine…you wanna be that way. I'm coming in." Steve warned him.
He fumbled with his key chain until he found the key Danny had given him for emergencies and used it to unlock the door.
He entered the house and was surprised to see Danny not five feet from the door, asleep on the couch. On the table in front of the couch there was a nearly empty bottle of vodka and half full glass.
Well, that's one way to deal with a headache.
Coming around to the front of the couch, Steve leaned down and gently shook Danny's arm.
"Hey."
When that didn't illicit a response, he shook him harder.
"Hey Danny. Get up." He said a little louder.
Danny groaned and without opening his eyes, swatted at Steve's hand.
"Go away." He mumbled.
"Danny, I'm not fuckin' around. I mean it. Get up." Steve warned. He was losing his patience as well as getting a bit worried. Danny wasn't much of a drinker. Aside from the occasional beer. And this definitely wasn't like him. He was about to smack him again, when something on the floor under the coffee table caught his eye.
He bent down and picked it up and found it was small prescription pill. He couldn't tell what it was. But one thing was for certain…it wasn't aspirin. Steve found himself suddenly panicking. Suddenly, Danny's mood swings and strange behaviors were starting to make sense. He bent down again and this time grabbed Danny firmly by his shirt and started shaking him.
"Danny, get up! Look at me. What is this? Danny groaned again and mumble something unintelligible.
"Danny, what did you take?" Steve asked him shaking him some more.
"Stop!" Danny finally cracked his eyes open and swung aimlessly at his partner. "What do you want?"
Steve sighed with relief. At least Danny was talking.
"Danny," Steve said calmly, holding the pill between his thumb and forefinger, "What is this? What are you taking?"
"None of your business." Danny snapped at him. "Go away."
Danny rolled over on the couch so his back was now to Steve.
"Dammit!" Steve cried, straightening back up and contemplating what to do next. It was obvious he was getting nowhere with Danny. He weighed his options for a moment and then headed off in the direction of Danny's bedroom. If Danny wasn't going to tell him what he was taking, he would find out himself.
He entered the room and immediately started emptying drawers in the night stand and bureau. Nothing. He stuffed his hands under Danny's mattress and circled the bed, but still came up empty. Moving onto to the master bathroom he opened the medicine cabinet but found only some aspirin and prescription for Amoxicillin, made out to Grace Williams, that was few months old. No doubt from when she had strep throat a month or so ago.
Think! Think! Where would Danny hide it?
And then it hit him. Steve headed over to Danny's closet and swung open the door. There on a shelf beneath his hanging clothes was a portable safe that Danny used to lock up his weapon each night. That had to be it.
Hurrying back into the living room. Steve grabbed Danny, not caring at this point if he hurt him or not, and dragged him from the couch.
"What the…" Danny started to protest as Steve started dragging him toward the bedroom.
"Shut up and move." Steve spat angrily.
"Let me go Steven." Danny hollered.
"Shut up and get in there." Steve replied, shoving Danny into the room.
Danny stumbled into the room and fell flat on his face. Steve didn't even wait for him to get up. He grabbed him by the collar and dragged him over to the open closed.
"Open it!" He demanded, pointing to the safe.
"What?"
"Open the damn safe Danny!" Steve repeated.
"No…Why?"
"Open the damn safe or I swear to God I will bust it open."
"You're going to break open a safe. You can't break open a safe." Danny challenged.
"Really? You care to test that hypothesis partner. Because I think you know I'm pretty resourceful when I want to be."
"Steve…"
"OPEN THE SAFE DANNY! NOW!"
"OK! OK! Relax!"
Danny's hand shook as he reached out to punch in the code that would open the safe. Steve wasn't sure if it was the drugs or fear that was causing it. Steve had never yelled at him like that before.
There was a beep that signaled the safe was unlocked. Danny opened the door and immediately stuck his hand inside but Steve quickly grabbed him and tossed him like a rag doll into the side of the closet.
"Yeah. I don't think so pal. Stay there!"
Danny looked on the verge of tears now but Steve didn't care. He reached into the safe and pulled out Danny's service weapon and placed it on top of the safe. Reaching back in, he pulled out a prescription bottled and examined it.
"Those are prescription." Danny insisted.
"Uh huh." Steve replied sticking his hand back in. "And what about this?" He asked Danny pulling out a large sandwich bag filled unidentified pills.
Danny lowered his head so he wouldn't have to look Steve in the eyes. "Shit" He groaned.
"You stupid son of bitch" Steve hollered at him and with little effort he dragged Danny from the closet, taking him across the room and slamming him into the wall. Danny's head snapped back and slammed against the wall with a loud thud. He winced in pain.
"Steve, please! Let me explain!"
But Steve didn't wait for an explanation. He raised his fist and punched Danny hard across the face. And when Danny fell sideways from the force of the blow, Steve quickly straightened him back up and hit him again.
"Is this what you were doing in the evidence archive last week Danny? Huh? Stealing from HPD?" He hit him again. "You have a daughter dammit!"
Danny was sobbing now, but didn't raise a hand to defend himself. Steve let him go and he slumped to the floor.
Steve was shaking himself at this point. He was angry and scared to the death for his friend. He had no idea how to even begin to deal with this.
"Stay there!" He told Danny and left the room.
Steve hurried through the living room and out the front door. He needed air and badly. It seemed like everything was spinning out of control and he had no idea what to do. He needed help.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. With a shaky hand, he dialed a number and brought the phone to his ear. The phone rang twice and a familiar voice answered.
"Yeah, this is Grover."
"Lou!"
"Steve?"
"Yeah." Steve replied, pacing back in forth in front of the house. "You alone?"
"Yeah why?" Lou asked him. He had been sitting at a restaurant with his old SWAT teammates, but had gotten up and excused himself when his phone rang.
"Lou, I need your help. Can you come to Danny's house?"
"Of course. What's wrong? Is Danny OK."
"I can't explain over the phone." Steve told him. "I just…I just really need you over here. Now."
"Steve, what's going on?" He could hear the panic in Steve's voice. It was something he never heard before.
"I'll explain when you get here. Just please hurry."
"Yeah. OK, I'm on my way." Lou replied.
"And Lou…Don't tell anyone where you're going. OK? Not anyone!"
"Sure Steve. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
TBD