It had been one of the worst days of Steve's life.

The morning had started with such promise. He woke next to Danny, early enough to steal some extra time with him before getting up to another sunny and warm day in Honolulu. A lead they'd been chasing down for a few days had wielded results, and now they were confident they had the new house Victor Hesse was laying low in.

Then everything turned into one of Steve's worst nightmares.

No Victor Hesse. Instead they found only Sang Min, whose explosives had caught the SWAT team by surprise and injured three of them. The resultant foot chase had led to another house where Sang Min was able to escape.

Moments later, the worst thing imaginable happened - Danny was hurt. Not just hurt but poisoned. As he'd come out of that house and collapsed, Steve had rushed over. He felt helpless not seeing an injury that he could do something about, use field medical training, first aid, something. Danny couldn't breath and Steve couldn't will the man's lungs to work. Tearing himself away from his lover, he'd gone to investigate what had happened. The dead body on the floor was the only indicator until he noticed the milk carton and the smell. The smell he recognized. He'd seen it before used in biological warfare. It was sarin.

His heart had sunk. Danny had been poisoned by sarin and if they didn't get him onto the correct medicine soon he was going to die.

The ambulance ride was too slow, it took too long. No matter if it was a 30 second ride or a ten minute one, it was far too long with Danny's life hanging in the balance.

Running down the corridor after the gurney, the doctors finally got him to stop and let them do their jobs. He had to let Danny's pale and sweating body trundle off along the corridor without him.

He picked up Grace and took her to her father. Danny had lit up when Grace joined him, as he always did, and whatever weakness his body carried while lying upright in the hospital bed he wouldn't show her. Danno was always strong for his Grace. Steve had to be strong too. He put all his resources into finding out how the sarin got near his Danny, into his city, on his Island.

While entrusting the care and feeding of Danno to Grace, he set about making the Island safer for them, and by the end of the day, the whole thing had been solved. He made his way back to the hospital as the sun was setting and arrived at Danny's room to find him resting quite peacefully. He thought Danny was asleep until the ruffled head turned as if sensing Steve's presence.

"Hey," Danny's voice was rough form his ordeal.

"Hey yourself," Steve answered as he pushed away from the door frame and walked around Danny's bed to the chair on the other side. "Where's Grace?"

"Rachel took her home, she was falling asleep."

"You okay?"

"Yeah," Danny picked at the bed cover. "Rachel, she uh, she's taking Grace away for a while, to England. She's having some problems with Stan and wants to go running off home." Danny paused.

"You're okay with this? You seem very calm."

Danny grinned lopsidedly. "That might mostly be the drugs, but yeah. Grace is excited to get to see her grandparents. And who am I to stand in the way of my little girl's happiness? Besides, with everything going on around here, it'll be good to know that she's safe. I don't want her getting tangled up in any of this magic nonsense we have going on."

"We still haven't heard back from the Guild. There might not be any trouble."

"The longer it takes, the more worried I get. We haven't heard from them in a few weeks. By now they either have the answers and we're not allowed to know them, or they're just as stumped and any minute I'll be taken away and dissected."

"You're not going anywhere," Steve growled. "Your ass just came back from the brink of death. I'm not letting you out of my sight for at least the next three months."

"Three months, huh?" Danny smiled again, which was infectious and Steve caught the bug.

"Yeah. Then we can talk. Maybe you can have a bathroom break or something." Steve laughed and then leaned his head down to Danny's chest, their hands clutched together on the bed spread.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked.

"Reassuring myself," was Steve's answer. Listening to Danny's heartbeat was something he did in bed, curled in next to Danny. He loved to listen to it as it slowly calmed down after they'd had sex. Now he was doing it to make sure it was in working order after nearly stopping.

"You're a goof," Danny murmured, but allowed Steve to get comfortable. Even if they both knew he was going to wake up later with a crick in his neck.

Steve had spoken to Rachel on the phone. She was picking up Danny from the hospital when he was being discharged, and was under orders to take him back home so he could rest. Steve would have preferred to pick Danny up himself, but since Rachel was taking Grace to England for a month, this was Danny's last chance to spend an extra precious few minutes with his daughter before she left on a plane that evening. So it was a surprise when Danny slowly walked into HQ with a grin on his face.

Steve remained in his office, wondering for a moment if he was imagining it because Danny had assured him he was going to be going home. Instead there he was, in the bullpen, hugging Chin and Kono and smiling away at them.

Steve wandered out. "Sidebar," he said, motioning with his head for Danny to move aside with him. As he did he let loose louder than he meant. "What the hell are you doing here, Danny? You're supposed to be at home. Resting!"

"Okay, Commander Ratchet, can you stop a moment? I am here to see my friends, offer a few hugs of thanks, it's something we in polite society call manners."

"You were in the hospital until this morning for good reason. Yesterday you were poisoned. You almost died. I'm pretty sure no one would begrudge you a chance to lay on a couch and watch some TV for a while. Hugs can wait."

"Can they? Are you going to turn one down? The docs already told me this morning that it's only because of you that I'm alive. Something you managed not to mention at all yesterday. So you were going to get the best hug of them all. The others? Practice hugs. But since you're turning it down, I'll just go…"

"Hold on, who said I was turning it down?"

"You said hugs can wait."

"And they can. For other people."

"Other people?"

"I'm not other people."

"Is this because of how you and I have gotten very close…?"

"Did you just say we've gotten 'very close'?"

"Well, yeah."

"That's how you put it? That's what we are?"

"Would you just come here, babe?" Danny held his arms out enough for Steve to sweep into them and they hugged, Steve rocking Danny slightly but conscious of the fact that Danny shouldn't even be walking around right now. As it was he could tell by Danny's hold in the hug that he didn't fully have his strength back and was trying to cover for it by patting him on his shoulders.

"McGarrett!"

Steve and Danny whirled out of their hug at the sound of the voice. Steve wrinkled his nose as Sang Min came in a few more steps, the scent of the vampire assaulting his nose. Steve and Danny stood side by side, guns raised, while Chin and Kono flanked them. With all of them pointing weapons at Sang Min, there was nowhere for the vampire to go.

"Danny, go to my office," Steve commanded.

"What?"

"Danny. NOW!" Steve practically yelled. He couldn't see over his shoulder but he could sense the tension rising between them - Danny not understanding why Steve wanted him away and into the relative safety of the other room.

"Yes, sir," Danny mumbled before lowering his weapon and moving backwards. Although Steve couldn't see, he could tell by the footsteps that Danny had gone into the office but no further and was likely standing from the doorway watching. Probably with his gun raised again, because he'd yet to hear Danny put it back in its holster.

The entire team was surprised when Sang Min sunk to his knees and allowed Chin to easily search and cuff him. "You don't understand, I'll cop to any charge, take the maximum sentence. Victor Hesse, he's coming for me, he wants me dead."

"Why?"

"I know too much of his operation, and I've talked to you before. He's changing things up, got a new partner. I'm a loose end."

"Isn't that a shame."

"It should be. 'Cause once I'm gone, he's coming after you and your boy. Says he's got magic in him. Says he's got to die before you use him. If I were you McGarrett, I'd listen to me."

Steve almost didn't know what to say. If Hesse tried to kill Danny he wouldn't succeed. If it was the last thing Steve did, he'd protect Danny from that monster.

"Chin," he said as he regained his voice, "take our guest to interrogation. Make him feel welcome."

Steve finally lowered his gun, holstered it and turned to face his office. Sure enough, Danny was standing there, taking up almost the entire entrance, still pointing his weapon, but at Steve rather than Sang Min.

Steve gave Danny a look. It was obvious Danny was just trying to make a point and once made, he lowered his gun. As Steve made his way over he stood his ground and folded his arms.

"Care to explain yourself?" Danny asked, far too calm.

"Care to sit down?" Steve gestured towards the couch further inside the small room.

Danny backed down and turned to go sit. He might not admit it, out loud or to himself, but Danny clearly needed the seat. The adrenaline rush of pulling his gun on a target had worn him out. He definitely didn't have enough of his strength back yet.

Once Danny was seated, he used the arm rest for his elbow and ran a hand over his brow, eyes dipped in what looked like frustration and tiredness. Steve took pity on him as he walked over. Sitting beside him, he reached a hand out to lightly run up and down his thigh.

"You are on medical leave. I didn't want you involved in a confrontation. You're not up to strength."

"I can hold a gun, Steven."

"And now look at you, Danny. You're worn out. You would have been anyway and then you faced down a vampire that encroached on our space? I only meant to look out for you."

"I dunno," Danny sighed, looking like he was warring with himself. "Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between you being my partner, my boss, my friend… whatever other descriptives you want to chuck on out there that we are to one another…" He finally looked up at Steve. "Yell at me like I'm an insubordinate Ensign again, and I'll castrate you."

Steve swallowed. "Got it."

"Now take me home, Rambo. The pills the doctor gave me are making me woozy."

"Right," Steve could have argued that the pills weren't the only cause of the wooziness but he was not getting into an argument with Danny right now. The priority was getting the man home and into bed.

After a quiet car ride, augmented only by Steve's worried glances to his partner as he leaned against the window with closed eyes, he gently roused him and helped him into the house. The longer Danny was on his feet, the more unsteady he became. He kept a hand on Danny's back as they climbed the stairs. He helped him take his clothing off and stowed his gun and badge while Danny was in the bathroom.

Once out, Steve decided to strip down as well and join Danny in the bed. He didn't have to go back to the office - Chin was taking care of things with Sang Min, so he had elected to take the rest of the day to give Danny what he needed.

As Danny rested comfortably against the pillow wearing nothing but his underwear under the covers, a now naked Steve slipped carefully into the bed and gathered Danny into his arms.

"Danny?" he asked quietly, letting the slow mood remain, checking Danny was still with him.

"Hmm?" Danny hummed in question.

"I want you to feel good again, let me…" He trailed slow kisses over Danny's temple and down the side of his face before nuzzling behind his ear. All the while, his hands ghosted over Danny's sides and hips, legs bracketing the other man in a solid embrace.

"Hmm," came the response again. He knew Danny was still there with him, worn out but still aware enough of Steve and what he was doing. He could tell Danny enjoyed the attention - goosebumps appearing on his skin as Steve ran his nails through Danny's chest hair.

He wanted this moment to be about Danny, about Danny feeling good, about Danny relaxing and letting Steve take care of him. Steve's enjoyment would come only out of Danny's soft reactions to his hands, his tongue, his breath. Knowing what he could do to Danny was the greatest turn on he'd ever had.

It was slow, sensual, his hand dipped below the waistband of Danny's briefs, teasing, while the other held Danny tightly to him, his back to Steve's chest, Danny's head on his shoulder. As Danny rocked against him, into him, away from him, Steve followed every movement with eyes wide open, letting the experience wash over him. They moved together as one, Danny's breath hitching. Seeing Danny like this was unlike any time before. Danny had never been so quiet in bed and yet Steve knew every nuance of Danny's reactions as ones he'd seen before and loved to see over and over again. The quiet that surrounded them became a physical cover that neither could break.

Danny came with Steve's hand wrapped around him. Taking the hand out of Danny's underwear, he then moved it to himself. Unmindful of the stickiness, he used the same movements he had on Danny to bring himself off.

Danny barely moved after, slowly drifting to sleep, trusting Steve to take care of everything. Steve just lay there, still faintly running deft fingers over Danny's body, enjoying nothing more than the warmth of the body next to him, lazily circling the tips of his fingers over Danny's upper chest and heart, marveling at the shine that emanated from him.

One thing he'd never mentioned out loud was how Danny glowed after they'd been together. The color seemed to shift, the intensity both brightened and mellowed at the same time, and when Steve let himself be surrounded by it, everything seemed right, like it was how things were supposed to be.

Whatever happened with the Guild, this was one thing he didn't need explained because he already KNEW exactly what it was. It was right.

Steve stirred when Danny shifted on the bed. It wasn't until he heard the sounds from the bathroom that he woke properly. Covers pooled low on his hips, he sat up, getting his knees under himself and waited for Danny to return. He wanted to get a good look at the man purely because he wanted to see how he was after their few hours rest. He was not using that as a shameless excuse to take in the glorious sight of a newly naked Danny Williams in front of him.

As Danny came out, he was steadier on his feet than he had been when they'd come home, but he didn't have the swagger he usually had, and Steve cursed the wretched sarin that had coursed through Danny's veins the day before. Danny's weakness meant he wouldn't be feeding from him for a few more days, so his marking of Danny would need to be purely physical until then.

"What are you look at?" Danny asked as he stood at the bottom of the bed.

"You," Steve answered succinctly. "Come here." He held his hand out and Danny took hold as he climbed back into the bed. Steve pulled Danny into his arms, both men doing their best to settle around each other's legs as they sat, Danny half on top of Steve, their hands roving over sweat dried skin.

Faces close enough for breath to mingle, Danny's hooded eyes drew Steve in closer. He leaned up to place soft kisses on Danny's forehead, a hand tangling into Danny's hair. He reverently kissed Danny's skin, trailing his lips down over his nose and then gently nipping at Danny's mouth. As Danny responded, the kisses deepened but remained slow, easy and unhurried.

Steve pulled back to allow them to breathe. He lifted Danny higher in his arms so he could run his tongue down over Danny's neck and onto his chest. He licked and sucked at Danny's skin, covering him as much as possible and enjoying the vibrations of Danny's moans against his lips. His stubble tickled against Danny's ribs as he moved lower, a hand trailing ahead of his mouth until he could curl himself down no more. His hands took over as they explored lower on Danny's body, his eyes following the movement, dazed.

"Danny," he voiced as he brought his head back up, fitting it comfortably in the crook of Danny's neck.

"Babe, please," Danny breathed as Steve's hand curled around him, "God, you're so good at this."

Danny's body arched into Steve's touch and he didn't want to break the spell. He carefully moved their position, letting their body's slip together in their aroused state, his own hardness pressed tightly underneath Danny's.

One of Danny's hands clutched at the side of Steve's face. Their cheeks touched, burning against each other and Danny turned into him, open mouthed kisses pressing against Steve's stubble, his tongue cooling it down.

Steve rocked up into Danny, a hand with grip firm at the base of his spine, dragged lower, pressing against Danny's entrance, fingers feeling his own hardness as he sought out more friction.

"Come on, Danny, let it go for me," Steve urged. "I want to feel you."

"Steve," Danny gasped, pushed over the edge, before collapsing against Steve as he pushed up once more against Danny and came over him. Stickiness in his own hand he pushed a finger against Danny's ass, sliding it in just a little until Danny hissed a groan out. He rubbed his hand off against Danny's skin making sure to leave the evidence of their lovemaking on him.

"I need a shower," Danny murmured against Steve's neck.

"No," Steve's hand trailed up and down Danny's spine. "Not for a bit, let it all linger."

"We stink."

"In a good way," Steve finished for him, smiling against Danny. "Just enjoy it."

They enjoyed it for the rest of the night. Steve got up to grab some food that they could easily share in the bed and he took care of Danny all night. Everything was lazy and he reveled in their closeness. Shared kisses and exploring hands as they lay in bed, it was a slow rediscovering of their bond.

Steve was glad they were at least dressed in something, even if just sweat pants, when the doorbell went off. They weren't expecting anyone, and their friends knew to text if they were coming over as it was best not to suddenly intrude on a vampire's living space.

He frowned as he put down his glass, and trailed a hand over Danny's shoulder as he passed him out of the kitchen and toward the front door.

Opening it, he was surprised to see Agent Kaye standing there, looking slightly nervous this time and only wearing jeans and a t-shirt rather than the sharp suit she had worn during their first meeting.

"Agent Kaye?"

"Please, I'm sorry to just come over here like this but we need to talk. It's important."

Steve stepped back from the door and waved her in as Danny joined them in the living room.

"Wow," Kaye remarked, "Neither of you are wearing clothes, I guess I interrupted something."

"It's okay," Danny said before Steve could respond, "Did something happen? You look worried, Agent Kaye."

"Please, call me Jenna and yes and no," she began. "I think I have some explaining to do because now I think it's my fault that you guys are in trouble."

"In trouble? What's going on?" Danny ushered Kaye into the kitchen and Steve followed, all of them taking a seat at the table.

"I'm an analyst for the CIA. I do research, it's my thing, I look for patterns or hidden information, that's what I do, it's why they pay me the big bucks, so to speak. I'm not a field agent, I'm not used to… people." Her whole demeanor seemed different to when they first met, Steve recognized now that it had been an act, but he didn't understand yet why.

"Start at the beginning," he urged her.

"Hesse, he's the beginning. You know he's been tracked by a lot of Government agencies."

Steve nodded, "FBI, CIA, ATF... I've done a lot of joint Ops over the years with various lettered agencies. Pretty much all of them want in on trying to stop him, but we've never been able to get him."

"Wonder what he did to piss of the Department of Weights and Measures, then?" Danny interjected.

"You're being facetious," Steve scowled.

"I'm being funny, move the story on to the present day, please?"

"I've been following Hesse's movements for the last year or so, almost exclusively," Jenna continued. "When you followed him to Hawai'i, we thought you had him cornered. Then he disappeared again. There was no one, no chatter, nothing I could find that said where he was and you stayed here, on Hawai'i, and no one else paid attention to that either because how could you follow him if no one knew where he was?" She took a breath finally and ran a hand through her hair. "And then a few months ago, Hesse came back and it turned out he was here the whole time. I had to know how you knew where he was, that he hadn't left the Islands. If there's no chatter, how did you pick him up? So I was looking more closely at you, your team. No one else had even noticed if there was any connection to you."

"It was a coincidence, we didn't know. And you seem awfully invested in finding Hesse," Danny remarked.

Jenna took a moment, composing herself. Steve could hear her speeding heartbeat, caused by her nerves. "Hesse, he took my fiancé. I'm sure he's still alive, but I need Hesse to tell me where he is."

"Great, how many people have personal vendetta's against this creep?" Danny asked pointedly at Steve as he leaned back in his chair.

"He's old, there's probably been a hell of a lot of us over the years."

"Guys, I'm sorry. When I met you and I found out you have magic," she gestured at Danny, "I thought this was how you'd been doing it. That you'd used magic to keep tabs on Hesse, that you'd been lying to me somehow when we met and Detective Williams, I knew there was more to you. You radiate too much light to be a beginner. I've been looking into both of your backgrounds and I…. I got those files from Toast and tried to research further into what was going on. The thing is," she hedged, "I'm not supposed to be looking into you. I took a leave of absence and I don't think the CIA is too fond of the whole 'personal vendetta' thing and I may have done some hacking of my own and… raised a flag. Or two."

"What kind of flag?" Steve asked, sitting forward, worried.

"There was no case, until I started looking. The Guild had no idea, but now they do. And they aren't the only ones. From what I've found, Homeland Security is taking an interest as well as my bosses at the CIA. I think I found out more about those old files. It was a special project. Look at the date on it." She pulled a piece of folded up paper out of her pocket and pushed it in front of Danny.

"That's the day before I was born," Danny said.

Jenna nodded. "The report indicated that whatever they were doing went on through the night."

"Which would be onto my actual birthday," Danny finished for her. "You think this special project is about me?"

"I think so. And if I'm right, they're going to want to get their project back."