Wow. I don't think I've written and posted a chapter this quickly before. (It took me 5 years to finish it! I promise not to do that with this one!)
Thanks to all of the reviews and follows I've gotten already for this story. Apparently I've got some TN support out there (susie8807 and HBSpud, I'm looking at you!). Now just to warn you, there are some OCs in this story, obviously since we haven't met much of Danny's family and they aren't in Hawaii anymore. I have a feeling I am not getting Steve's voice right, so let me know if it's too OOC for him or something.
BTW I am not making these places up, Google them if you want. Onto the "show"!
**OH, and BTW, Bold type dialogue is considered speaking on the phone.
Late afternoon sunlight hit the eyes of the Five-0 partners as they departed the plane. Steve had contacted a few friends to get them on a Navy plane that was headed for the Millington Regional Jetport, adjacent to the Naval Support Activity Mid-South base in Millington, TN, and only 30 minutes from his relatives.
Danny raised his hand to shield his eyes from the setting sun. Seeing a man in uniform standing not far, Danny looked to Steve.
Steve looked back at him and smiled. "I arranged for some transportation." Confidently walking off the ramp and towards the waiting man, Danny had no choice but to follow his partner. As they reached the waiting person, who was a friend of Steve's if the enthusiastic handshake was anything to go by, Steve greeted him. "Hey Keith! Good to see you!"
The Navy guy, with dark hair and tan skin, could have almost been mistaken for Hawaiian if it weren't for the Southern accent that thickened his speech, "How 'bout it Steve!" He turned to look at the shortest man in the group and held out his hand. "You must be Danny. Lieutenant Keith Twisdale. Nice to meet you."
Danny took the man's hand firmly. "Ah, yes. One of Steven's Navy buddies. Nice to meet you too."
Steve turned and gave Danny a look at that.
"What? What's with the face?" Danny asked.
"One: I don't have faces. Two: how come you get Navy right with everyone but me?"
"Chill, would you? You're making a scene in front of your friend here!"
"I'm making a scene?"
Laughter echoed down the runway. The two turned to their forgotten audience. "Man, Chin was not kidding about you two."
"Chin?" Danny asked, reevaluating his previous thought of Lt. Twisdale not being Hawaiian.
Waving that thought away, Lt. Twisdale nodded toward the waiting car. "I got you a ride," he stated, "but you gotta get me back to base first."
"I think that's a fair trade," Steve agreed, hand outstretched for the keys. Just as they were to land in his hand, they were snatched by Danny.
"Hey! Danno. Gimme the keys!"
"Well, let's think about that, shall we? Which one of us has been here before? Huh? Which one of us has family here? Huh, Steven? For once will you put your control issues to the side and let me drive?" Danny ranted, hands and arms flying, heedless of their company.
"Ok, ok. You can drive. Sheesh," Steve capitulated.
The three men got into the car and drove off the airfield. As Steve asked Keith about his twin girls, Danny focused on getting on and off the base as quick as possible.
"Thanks for this," Steve said, as they dropped the lieutenant off.
"Yeah, thanks," Danny repeated. Lt. Twisdale just nodded, before wishing them luck on finding his family.
"Ok, my brother's house is only 30 minutes out and then we'll find out what's going on."
"Sure thing, Danny. I'm sure we'll figure this out," Steve said quietly. Danny only nodded tightly at the sentiment. Hoping to distract his partner for the drive, Steve brought up something he'd been wondering. "So your brother moved to Tennessee of all places? That just kind of strikes me as odd."
"Yea well, Tennessee is apparently a good place to go if you're in the cotton business."
"Cotton business?"
"Yea, Joe was always one of those ag-guys, where he gets it I have no clue. Anyways, so he gets married young, and by young I mean right-outta-high-school-kinda-had-to young. He gets a job with the government working with cotton-don't ask me what he actually does- and then they move around a lot before finally settling down here."
"Wow. He sounds quite the opposite of you," Steve muttered.
Danny shot him a sideways glance at the remark. "I can't decide if that was an insult or not."
"So, other than your niece, they have any other kids?"
"Yeah, five in total."
"Five?"
"Yup," Danny grinned at Steve. "They don't do anything by halves in the South." Here, Steve just shook his head. By now they had made it all the way through the main part of Millington and were driving down the highway, surrounded by fields interspersed with houses and a fair amount of churches. "I've got another niece, three nephews, a niece-in-law, and even a grand-niece."
"A grand-niece? Aren't you a little young?" Steve asked, annoyed at the many facts that he was just now discovering about his closest friend.
"Well between me being a surprise baby a little later than the rest, and you know how I mentioned Joe started young with the babies…" Danny trailed off, his explanation filling in the blanks.
"Huh," Steve mused. "So whose house are we going to now?" he asked. They were passing through what seemed to be a mini-Millington. A supermarket, couple of gas stations and fast food places clumped on one side of the highway they were driving down.
"Well first, Steven, we are stopping at this hotel and dropping our stuff off, and then we are going to my brother's house."
They pulled into a small hotel that sat on the side of the road, nestled between a Burger King and a doctor's office.
"How do you know they have any vacancies?" Steve asked, mostly just to rile his hot-headed partner up.
"Uh, because its Atoka, Middle-of-Nowhere, Tennessee. That's why."
Steve looked at him questioningly. "I thought you said that this was Munford."
"No, this side is Atoka," he pointed where they were, "and that side is Munford." He gestured to the opposite side of the highway.
"Really?" Steve asked. "That's how you divide these towns?"
Danny ignored his last comment and secured them a room with two beds. They dropped their stuff off and headed straight back out.
As they climbed back into the car, Steve broached a topic he had been thinking on. "You know, Danny, I think we need to make a stop before we go to your brother's house."
"And where would that be, Super-Seal?"
"The local police."
"You…you actually have a point."
Driving another fifteen minutes, the Five-0 members arrived at the Tipton County Sherriff's Department, Danny having explained on the way that the individual city police were in no way capable of investigating…well, anything really.
As the two men approached the desk at the department, Danny whispered to Steve, "Wanna take bets on how much trouble the locals give us?"
Steve rolled his eyes before approaching the desk and practically demanding to see the lead investigator on the disappearance.
"Can I help you?" an extremely accented voice drawled, no other word for it, behind them.
The two Five-0 turned to see the newcomer and saw a tall, brown-haired man, complete with suit standing before them. Not one to let his surprise show, Steve took the appearance of the stranger in stride, reaching his hand out in greeting. "I'm Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett, and this is Detective Danny Williams. We are part of the Governor's task force in Hawaii."
"Chief Deputy Billy Daughtry . Well, you gentlemen are a long way from home. Can I help you with something?"
"Yeah, we're looking into the disappearance of…"
"Jennifer Williams?" the Deputy guessed, a glint of suspicion in his eyes. "Why would two detectives from Hawaii be looking into a 'small crime' like this?"
"Ok, for the record, I am a detective," Danny gestured with both hands towards himself, before jabbing them at Steve, "but he is a Navy SEAL."
"I still don't…"
"AND," Danny continued, his ire overtaking his manners as he talked over the deputy, "this is, in no way, a 'small crime'! This is my niece we are talking about! If this is the attitude that this department has…"
This time the deputy interrupted Danny, his face oddly cleared of any suspicion and a gentle smile tugging at his lips. "Oh! You must be that Danny. I apologize. I should have made the connection."
"That Danny? What do you mean by that Danny?" Steve asked, a calming hand laid on the blond's shoulder.
"It's just, I've heard Bonnie talk about her hot-headed brother-in-law before."
"Wait," Danny sputtered, the change in the deputy throwing him off track. "You know Bonnie?"
"I know Bonnie and Beth and Ashley, and I know Jennifer."
At his niece's name, and the names of the others that Steve didn't know but Danny obviously did, the detective deflated, almost visibly. "How do you know them?"
"We go to the same church," the deputy said, his compassion extremely evident in his eyes.
"Look, I know we are far out of our jurisdiction, but I can't just sit by and not look for my niece," Danny spoke normally now, no evidence of the rant that was present just minutes before.
"I have no problem with you looking around, just keep us updated. At this point, we don't know anything other than what we've been told."
"Which is what?" Steve asked.
"Let's go to my office and we'll talk," Billy said. He led them into the department before stepping into a decent sized office, decorated with pictures of a curly-haired teenager and a blonde woman. He gestured for the two Five-0 to take seats, before he shut the door and sat behind his desk.
"So, what do we know?" Danny asked, leaning forward eagerly.
"Hold up," Steve said, pulling his phone out and dialing. "If you don't mind, I'd like the rest of our team to hear the facts."
"What's up Boss?" Kono answered, her voice coming through the speakerphone. "You there already? What do you know?"
"Well, Kono, if you'd let the man speak, we've got Chief Deputy Daughtry here to fill us in," Danny smiled at the questions from the youngest Five-0.
"Billy, please," the deputy said. "Like I was saying, there's not much to go on. Jennifer was working the evening shift in the Math Lab at the local community college Tuesday night." It was Thursday now. "She closed up at 7 pm like always. She got into her car and then never made it home."
Danny rubbed his face in frustration. "What about the car?"
"We never found it," Billy answered.
"Security cameras?" Steve asked.
"There are none."
"None? How can there be none? Does the school not care about safety?" Danny began to explode, his temper warring with his fear and winning.
"Brah," Chin spoke through the phone, his steady voice a calming blam on Danny's mood, for now. "Look, why don't you go talk to your family, see what you can find. Kono and I will look for her car and check her cell, see if we can ping it."
"Thanks Chin," Danny said.
"Call if you need anything else."
Steve shut the phone before standing, Danny following him. The deputy followed them to the door and walked them back to the front.
Danny offered his hand to the policeman, "Thanks for your help. And letting us poke around."
Billy just smiled at the shorter man before shaking his hand back. "I get the feeling that you would do it with or without my blessing."
Shrugging but not confirming that belief, Danny turned to leave, Steve a solid presence beside him.
"By the way, Detective," Billy called after them. Danny turned one last time to face him while Steve kept walking ahead. With a sincere tone and a deep kindness in his eyes, Billy stated, "I want you to know that we are praying for you and your family."
Danny just nodded, before turning and walking out.
Whatcha think?