Thank you so much for the reviews; hugs and kisses to you all, I'm glad you followed the prequel too, as now you've got the background to this story. Thank you also for giving me the go-ahead to continue with this, as I've got a really good plot that's all finished, just need to fill in the good bits.
I solemnly swear to update as regularly as possible, just note that as regularly as possible DOES NOT mean regularly, I'm incredibly busy at the moment, though I do have a couple of hours to kill right now, so I'll see how far I get with this.
I'm going to stop babbling now!

Disclaimer: I do not own a single right to Hawaii 5-0, and the only impact that these stories have on my life is the deterioration of my eyesight.

Pa'ani Kalai

"Okay, so what's our game plan?" Chin said as we all looked at the crime scene photos on the tech table. "What do we know?"
"Victim was having an affair." Kono piped up.
"Whoever killed her saw her with another man. Another very violent man, who has a very strong right hook, evidently." Danny added.
"She loved her killer." I said. Steve looked at me strangely, before concluding,
"So, the killer was either the lover or the husband. Let's see who it was. Bring the husband in." He turned to walk into his office.
"Steve, you can't just bring the guy in like he's a suspect." I stood up. Steve paused, turned back, and looked at me strangely once more.
"But he is a suspect." Tact was never his strong suit. "He has motive and opportunity, we need to get an alibi from him before we discount him front the case."
"At the moment, he's a victim. At least let us go out and see if he looks guilty before getting him to come in. Look, maybe it was the boyfriend; we can see if the husband knew who he was." I reasoned.
"If it wasn't him and we hold him here, he's gonna get pissed pretty quick. Pissed an uncooperative. We need to do it gently." Danny added, standing up. "Sam, let's go."

"I just can't believe she's gone." Ross Gibbard sat on the couch with his head in his hands, poised with his elbows resting on his knees. He looked like the textbook-grieving spouse.
"We're sorry for your loss." Danny was perched in an armchair that was printed with a calm blue paisley pattern. He looked at his feet as he uttered that phrase that we had been programmed to say.
"Oh, I'm sure you are. You sound like a robot, you didn't know her, you can't just-" He trailed off, his brief anger quickly dissolved as he was overcome with memories of his wife. "You didn't know her."
"I know what you're going through. I know how hard this is." I said carefully, not wanting to aggravate the man any more. "Everyone's lost someone that they love."
"I'm sorry that we can't give you more time to mourn and heal, but we need to find out the identity of your wife's killer." Danny began, speaking softly. "We have a witness that puts her with an unknown man in the parking lot when she died." Gibbard looked up, running a hand over his face in exhaustion.
"A man?" He breathed.
"Yes, a man that said something along the lines of having seen your wife having intimate relations with someone else." Danny phrased the fact that Mrs Gibbard was having an affair very tactfully, a skill that I knew Steve didn't have. But I liked the fact that he was impulsive. I loved the fact that Steve was impulsive. In fact, if he weren't impulsive, odd were that we wouldn't have even-
"An affair? Meredith was having an affair?" Ross Gibbard was immediately on his feet, breaking my unprofessional train of thought. "I knew, I always knew. I confronted her many times, but she always denied it, she always-"
"Mr Gibbard, you need to calm down and think straight. Right now, you're a suspect in the investigation." I stood up.
"I am?"
"If you had witnessed your wife with another man, that gives you instant motive. We can have you meet the witness, who could possibly identify you by your voice. Do you even have an alibi for the time of death?"
"Here," Gibbard moved around the couch to an old oak desk. The sun shone though the white curtains and reflected off the surface, illuminating the pock marks and long lines in the wood, as well as a few coffee mug stains. "This is Meredith's laptop, I don't know if you can break the password on her computer, but if you can access her e-mail, or..." he stopped, fixing me with a determined stare. "I didn't kill my wife. I loved her." Danny stood up, and took the laptop from his hands, motioning at me that we should leave. Before he turned, he added:
"She told the man in the parking lot that she loved him." Pain shot across Ross Gibbard's face. "We'll keep in touch."

"I cannot believe you said that to him, Danny." I switched off the radio, and turned to face him.
"It's true!"
"That does not mean that you had to tell a grieving man-"
"He easily could have killed her!" Danny lifted his hands off the steering wheel for a split second in his trademark dramatic gesture.
"But he could be innocent! He could be, Danny, he could just have easily lost his wife to some guy that she slept with, and you just told him that she loved this other guy!" I switched the music back on, and turned to stare straight ahead.
"He was hiding something; I could tell he was hiding something." Danny muttered guiltily.
"I know, I know."I sighed.
"And he's more than capable of it, Sam, you saw how aggressive he was."
"Yes, Danny, but the fact that someone's capable of murder doesn't mean that they have committed murder, and besides, you saw the look he got when you said that." I spoke to him softly, crossing my legs and tucking them under me.
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry."
I raised my eyebrows at him as we approached a red light, and he turned to face me.
"I mean it. I just think that when a man's wife loves someone else, he deserves the right to know. I didn't find out until the last second, and," He saw the light turn green, and accelerated a little too quickly. "I know what I would have preferred."
"Danny-" I instantly forgave him for everything said.
"It's fine, really." He smiled at me. "I'm over it," he lied.
We sat in companionable silence for a minute, listening to the radio.
*Home – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros*
"You and Steve," Danny began hesitantly.
"Yes?" I was immediately on my guard.
"Are you two?" He looked at me, and I cocked an eyebrow. "You know?"
"Danny, you know this." The morning after Steve and I had finally gotten our heads out of our asses, we had a very frank and awkward conversation with the rest of the team.
"Yes, you're together. But do you," He looked at me again, and I again cocked my eyebrow. "You know?"
"Danny!"
"Do you love him? I mean, is this serious?"
"Of course I do. Trust me, there was much deliberation before we decided to, you know." He looked at me with understanding in his eyes.
"He smiles a lot now." I laughed, rolling down the window and letting my fingers drift through the fast-moving air.
"And he didn't before?" We laughed together for a second, as I rolled the window back up and settled back into my seat.
"No. I hope you understand that." He suddenly got serious, fixing me with a stare that I would be too scared to direct at someone in the passenger seat while I was driving.
"I do." I stared back, smiling gently. Danny cared about him; that much was simple. But Steve and I were fine, he made me happy, and I think I made him happy.
I made him smile more than he had before.
I made him smile.
I rolled my seat down and smiled, and closed my eyes, and sang along softly to the song playing.

Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma and Pa/ Moats and boats and waterfalls and pay phone calls.

This chapter is a little shorter than before, but I didn't want to start the next section of the story. But please review and let me know if you want a chapter 3! Also, please feel free to make any suggestions about what I'm writing, what you would like to hear more about et cetera; I'm all for constructive criticism xx