A/N: I know where this story is going, and the end of the chapter will tell you how I got the name for this story. Another chapter should happen in a week. Tell me if you like it. Sheila

Auntie 2

Steve rested against the rock face for a moment. The HFD Battalion Chief was right. The winds were too strong for repelling down a cliff in the late afternoon. Still, he'd ignored the Chief and let Grover wrangle with him while he pulled gear out of the back of his car. Chin had gotten red in the face when he saw Steve setting up, but he said nothing because there was nothing to say. Danny's car was in pieces in the surf at the bottom of a steep cliff. It was an hour before sundown, and, overnight, the surf was going to rise and wash away everything into the sea.

Steve had prepared silently. Duke had to get between Grover and the Fire Chief when pointed comments about McGarrett's stupidity were made. Steve ignored all of them. He said nothing to Kono when, after staring over the side for a minute, she went over to the bushes and vomited. He said nothing when someone said that Danny had a zero percent chance of surviving the crash. He just checked each knot and carabineer carefully and headed over the side while Chin grimly guided his descent.

The wind died down and he checked his watch. Only 50 more minutes until dusk. After dusk, it was going to be very difficult to see the cliff face well enough for his ascent.

"Steve!"

He looked up at Chin's worried face and gave him a thumbs up. He knew that Chin was wondering how many 5-0 funerals he was going to have to attend in one week. As if ordered, the wind died down for the rest of the descent, and he landed on a rock large enough for him to perch about 10 feet above the body of the car.

It was hard to actually look at the car. It was so badly mangled. Half of it was underwater. It seemed even silly to call out his name, but the effort was required. "Danny! Danny!"

Steve's gut flooded with the sadness of knowing that anticipating a response under these circumstances was ridiculous. As expected, there was so movement except for the gentle sway of the back end as it danced to the tide's rhythm. There was a rock next to the car that would give him actual contact, and he willed himself to come in contact with the reality of the situation.

He found a place deep inside himself that was still a Navy SEAL who could compartmentalize well enough to see this as a mission, and not the confirmation of his best friend's death. He made the last drop and took off his backpack.

This far down they couldn't hear him and so he started talking to himself. It was something he'd learned to do when he was alone on a mission- a mantra of sorts. Over and over, he kept muttering to himself about the importance of the crime scene, the preservation of evidence, and the need for this job to be done. The word job bounced around inside his cranium, feeling both alien and necessary.

He pulled out his flashlight and shined it through shattered glass. The front seat was submerged, but the top of the windshield was above water. As the light hit the shards of glass, he could see blood painted on the edges. The chanting stopped for a moment because there was a lump in his throat that stole his voice. His breath shuddered as he whispered, "Ah, Danny."

He reached over the backseat looking for the body but there was nothing but seawater. "Please be here. I need to take you home to your…children. Please Danny."

The wreckage moaned under his weight, and he pulled back. With shaky fingers, he brought out his cell and recorded as much video evidence as possible. The ocean was mere hours away from owning what was left of this scene.

"Steve! Can you hear me?"

He squinted up the face of the cliff at Chin Ho.

"You need to start climbing in the next ten minutes."

Steve gave no acknowledgement of his understanding. He just returned his attention to the car.

….

Chin ran fingers through his thick hair.

"He doesn't want to leave Danny," Kono said.

"Well, he's going to have to," he tried to control the tremor in his voice.

"I wouldn't want to leave you."

Chin blinked and then pulled her into a hug. "I know. I know, but he's ohana, and so he has to think of the rest of us as well."

Lou strode over. "Media is here. Danny's name was said over police scanner and they want confirmation."

"No! No!" Chin was as emotional as he ever got. "No! Grace does not learn about this on TV!"

Lou put a hand on his shoulder. "I hear ya'. I probably should've started by saying that they are here but I handled it. Now, how do we get Superman back up this cliff?"

…..

Steve saw a glint of something white on the next rock and he jumped to it. On the edge of the rock hung fabric- a cool, blue and white pinstriped shirt. Danny's shirt. He pulled it up and noted the blood spatter around the collar and chest. He sighed. "What more do I need, Danny? Am I imagining that you are swimming to the next beach? Am I that much of an idiot?"

His eyes stung as he considered the best possible scenarios, but nothing came to mind.

"Steve!"

He concentrated on the scene, trying to imagine Danny alive and thrown from the wreckage, but as he looked around he saw nothing that would provide a welcoming refuge. Even if he landed in the water, he would've been too concussed from going through the windshield to be able to swim. Those were the facts, and facts were facts.

"Steve! Dammit! I'm going to start descending myself in the next 60 seconds if you don't grab that rope and climb! I mean it, Steve! Don't test me!"

Steve lifted his head and looked up. He gave Chin the signal to climb. He looked back at the car one time and heaved out air. "I'm so sorry, Danny. Someone set you up and I'm going to find out who it is and I'm going to bury them. You hear me? I'm going to do that for you. And I remember the time you asked me to watch over Grace. I remember that, and I want you to know that I take that very seriously. I am going to take care of her for you. Okay? I got you, bruddah. Always."

He rubbed his eyes, looked up at Chin, and started to climb just as the sun settled into the horizon.

….

Chin Ho leaned over his cousin, and whispered, "Hey Cuz, why don't you go home and get a few hours? I'll stay here and wait for Steve."

Kono raised her head from the desk. "Not going anywhere."

"Hardly makes sense for all of us to be dragging our feet. We spent half the night up and down that road in the dark trying to figure out what happened. We'll see everything better in the light of day."

She shook her head. "If it was me up there, Danny would be here waiting for the sunrise like the rest of you."

"It's just that you've been through so much with Adam in jail and everything."

She tossed her head. "Really? How you doing, Chin? Come on, Brah, how you doing?"

He stepped back, blinking at the bite in her words. "I'm sad, Cuz. I feel really sad. He didn't survive that fall. Nobody could've survived that fall."

"So, go home and be sad."

He sat down next to her. "I get it, Kono. I stay because being useful and finding out who's responsible gives me purpose- gives me a distraction from the pain. You feel the same way."

"Yeah," she said, "I do. We see this through together."

"I brought egg sandwiches and coffee for everyone," Lou boomed as he came into the room. "Sun is coming up in two hours and it's going to be a long day."

Kono rubbed her face. "I'll take a coffee. I…can't contemplate food right now."

"Gotta keep your energy up, Kono."

She stiffened but Chin put a hand on her shoulder. "We all take care of each other on this team. It's what we do."

"McGarrett not back yet?"

Chin sighed. "He's still with Rachel."

"That's gotta be hard." Lou sat down with a sandwich and coffee. "I know she's an ex, but they have two children together."

Kono nodded and blew on the hot coffee.

"Steve is going to feel this one deep, isn't he?"

Chin and Kono looked at each other.

"I've been around enough to see them act like an old married couple. It was weird at first for me. They're bickering one minute and laughing the next. I never quite understood the psychology of it."

It felt a little awkward as if Lou was finally indulging in questions he'd held onto for a long time. Yet, it also fit in a night filled with the absurdity of ignoring every safety protocol possible and then stumbling around on mountain roads in the dark looking for evidence that no number of LED flashlights was going to uncover. Chin knew that the finality of a body and a burial would be denied all of them by the time the tide has washed away the evidence, and they were going to all be left with a whole lot of unresolved feelings. He looked up from his uneaten sandwich, "Danny is a force as you well know: smart, brave, funny, loyal, stubborn, cantankerous. He came into Steve's life at a time when he was…without anchor. His dad was recently deceased and his mother had been presumed dead for years, and a sister who left chaos wherever she went. So our little haole from New Jersey showed up, and he was unimpressed with our fearless leader. He called him out on a number of issues."

Kono smiled. "Danny could…can argue better than anyone I've ever met."

"Now, Steve could've fired him and sent him back to HPD, but there wasn't a single place where Danny wasn't willing to follow him and back his play. Plus, he cared. That's the thing about Danny. He cares about everyone in his world; he's fierce about it."

"I think the boss needed that- someone who could challenge him. Danny was always poking at him, trying to uncover his vulnerable side. It was good for him."

"My auntie Min Min met Danny once, and she told me that he has a natural gift for creating ohana which is funny because he acts like he doesn't even like the islands, but I remember how quickly I became fond of him despite his quirks."

"More than fond," Kono sighed and Chin nodded.

Lou nodded. "I remember when my daughter was taken. He was very committed, and there was a moment when he had to pull me out of a pretty serious spiral. I knew that this was kind of guy who would always be a friend."

"He has an obscene sense of fairness that turns him into a one man justice system," Chin said shaking his head. "Remember the time we were at the Hilton, Kono?"

She made a face. "Are you kidding? Lou, we were having drinks after a big bust, and there was this crude haole from the mainland who was drunk and he was making comments about the island being full of brown people and Danny was getting heated. Chin and Steve were trying to calm him down, telling him to let it go, and then the idiot drunk tried to cop a feel with the waitress who was Hawaiian, and it was on."

Chin chortled. "Danny sprang out of his seat and gets this 6' 4" fat guy down on the floor in a headlock in a dining room full of people, and he just kept saying over and over, 'Do not disrepect my island or my people.'"

Kono chuckled as she picked up her coffee. "The whole dining room stood and applauded. Classic Danny Williams."

"But don't tell him you heard that story. He'll deny it ever happened. The Hilton manager offered him free drinks for a year, but Danny being Danny felt that wasn't necessary and now, he feels 'weird' about going there."

Kono's chin started to tremble and she bit her lip. "Come on, guys. Tell me there's something we're not considering. Tell me that what happened didn't really happen."

Lou sighed. "I wish I could. I can't reason it to be anything other than it is. We all have the pics from Steve's cell. Danny hit that windshield hard. What else could it be? Someone ran him through that rail. It was planned, calculated. Jerry pulled the texts from our shared network. Someone knew how to push his buttons and they wanted to hurt him. There is no surviving that fall. Someone wanted revenge and they got it."

Kono brushed at the tears on her cheeks. "That's not what I want to hear."

"Me neither," came a bark from the door. Steve was standing there, hands on his hips. "Are you holding a wake in here? Tell me 'cause I need to know if I have a team focused on finding Danny or a team ready to plan his funeral?"

Chin sighed. "How's Rachel?"

"She's like you guys. She thinks he's dead."

"Yeah, facts are a funny thing," Lou growled.

"What did you say?" Steve challenged. As he came closer, they could see how red his eyes were.

Chin got between the two of them and focused on Steve. "We're tired and we're worried. It was not a good scene up there, but no one is giving up."

Steve squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm sorry. It's late and talking to Rachel was rough- rougher than I thought it would be."

Chin put a hand on his shoulder. "Sit down. Lou has coffee and sandwiches."

Steve looked resistant but the hand on his shoulder wasn't going anywhere, and so he sat. Lou unwrapped a sandwich for him and pushed a coffee in his direction.

Kono wiped at her eyes. "What about Grace? That's who I'm worried about."

Steve blew out air. "Me too. The teacher has been notified. She has all the phones. They are only allowed to watch movies- no regular TV. They decided it was best if she came back with her classmates late this afternoon. There isn't any definite plan to tell her until we know more."

"So, let's plan out the morning." It was bold for Chin to step in knowing how McGarrett liked to be in control, but he got no push back. If anything, Steve seemed grateful for the respite. "I figure you're going down that cliff one more time, right?"

Steve nodded. "If there is anything left down there, I want it."

Chin nodded. "Kono, you and Lou need to comb that mountain road for clues."

"The scene itself is a nightmare. Any evidence has to be trampled by all the emergency vehicles and personnel."

"I've been thinking about that," Kono said. "Steve's photos suggest more than one slam to his back bumper. There's probably more than one hit along those rails. Maybe, both vehicles left evidence."

"Yeah, that's good." Steve took a bite of the sandwich, but chewed as it were a chore.

"We also need to get eyes and ears out on the streets. Who wanted Danny dead?"

Nothing said anything for a moment. At any given time, there were a number of individuals that wanted 5-0 in graves. The trick was going to be narrowing it down to those foolish enough to actually follow through.

Lou stood. "I got some CIs who might respond best with an early morning visit."

"Yeah," Kono said, wiping the last of her tears on a napkin. "I'll go talk to Jerry and Kamekona. Those guys can work the streets for us."

She stopped and put a hand over Steve's. "Nobody's giving up, Boss."

He nodded, unable to lift his face. "I know."

Steve waited until he and Chin were alone. "What do you think, Brah? Am I being a fool?"

"No. I think you're a SEAL, and a man doesn't become a SEAL unless he's willing to fight to the end."

Steve studied his face. "But…"

"Your mom came back from the dead after twenty years. If Danny's dead and we don't find a body, I don't know what it's going to take to get you to accept that he's gone."

"Okay," he nodded. "I needed to hear that. You're going to have to let me know when it's time."

"You're going to fight me."

"I know that and I know you won't give up on me, Chin. Do it for Rachel and Grace and Charlie. If the hope isn't real anymore, you have to help me know that."

….

Steve had to wait until 10 a.m. until the tide receded enough for him to catch a glint of metal. Chin was with him again, guiding him down the rock face. The wind was brisk and it took a good 30 minutes to get him back on the rock closest to where the car had been. The only thing left was the back bumper snagged in some rocks. It was a blessing to find it- it, more than any other part of the car, would tell them something about what happened. He dragged it onto the rock again and sat cross-legged, looking out on the ocean. He was as alone as he was going to be until this was over, and he appreciated the solitude the rock offered him. It was a struggle for him to be public with his emotions. Danny had worked hard to break through those barriers and there were times where he'd succeeded. In fact, Danny Williams had gotten in deeper with McGarrett than anyone ever had- even Catherine. Danny was as relentless as a badger when he spotted a wall.

In the last year, Steve had started giving in without much resistance. To his surprise, the vulnerability that Danny demanded seemed to bring him relief rather than humiliation. Danny had said that one of these days they were uncover the real Steve McGarrett, and when that happened, life was going to get a lot easier for both of them. He often wondered what Danny meant with that statement. Was Danny aware that some of the insights he pushed him for were revelations as much for him as for Danny? It surprised him that feelings could live in him that he never even knew existed and that this scrappy little haole had shown up on his radar and insisted on uncovering them.

His earpiece crackled and he touched it. "Yeah? You guys found anything?"

"No, but maybe it's time for you to come up and we'll check in."

Steve hesitated. "It's my last chance to be down here. I…want to make sure that I've looked at everything."

There was a pause, and Steve knew Chin had been watching him do nothing but stare at blue ocean for the last 20 minutes. "It's a heavy wind today, and it's going to get heavier. And I know you are going to strap that damn bumper to your back. It's going to be hard climb. 15 more minutes?"

"Okay." In other words, he had a few more minutes before he had to return to the cacophony of Danny's absence.

He stared at the wide expanse of water. "Talking is good, right? That's what you've always told me. So, here goes. I'm scared, Danny. I'm really scared. I can't pretend that you're going to come swimming out of a cove anymore. It's not going to happen. And if, by some miracle you didn't go over this cliff, I know you were injured badly, and I can't think of a single reason why someone trying to kill you would keep you alive. If there is another way to put this together, I can't find it."

His throat got thick, and when he breathed out, a sob surprised him. "I don't know what to say to her, Danny. What can I possibly say that's not going to hurt her forever? I was just two years older than she is when I thought my mom was killed. You don't know what that's like for a kid. It was like the deepest, darkest, loneliest hole, and it changes a person. I want more than anything to protect her from that, but I can't, Danny. I can't."

He rubbed at his face roughly. "The last six years I have had you for these moments- the ones where I felt truly lost and needed someone to listen. Six years?" He shook his head. "Why does it feel like I've known you forever?"

The wind whipped at his face. "I gotta go back up there, and be the guy that gets it done. I've always known how to be that guy, and I do that by putting the sad parts of my life in places in my head where they stay hidden until I'm ready. I learned how to do that after I lost mom. But I know you. Dead or alive, you are going to be hollering to get out that place. You're going to be kicking and complaining until you take over my entire head, and I'm scared for what that means."

He stood and dragged what was left of the bumper up, and then he carefully strapped the last piece of Danny's car to his back.

….

Chin stared at him hunched up against an emergency vehicle as he watched crime scene investigators wrap up the bumper. He figured Steve's back must be hurting pretty bad from the angle he was leaning. He wanted to go up and say something helpful, but he didn't figure McGarrett could hear him. He felt a hand on his arm and he turned to find Kono there. "Anything?"

She nodded. "Danny first hit the rail about 300 yards back. I got guys working on it. He really pull that metal thing all the way up that cliff?"

Chin nodded. "Took him almost an hour to climb. Wind kept catching it. I begged him to drop it about a dozen times."

"It's probably our best chance at evidence."

"Yeah." Chin's face was like stone.

Her hand tightened around his arm. "You've decided to be the strong one. I can see it in your eyes. I get it, but it takes a toll. You cared about Danny as much as the rest of us."

Chin sighed. "We're going to have to take turns, Cuz. Our fearless leader can't think straight right now."

They heard a car horn, and turned to see a taxi pull up. Kono's breath caught. "Is that Grace? I thought they weren't flying back in until later.

Danny's daughter jumped out of the backseat, hair flying across her face, and the cabbie got out the other side of the car and grabbed her roughly by the arm. "You still owe me $50, little girl!"

Chin rushed him hard, grabbed him by the collar, and slammed him against the hood of the car. "You don't ever touch a child like that!"

Grace squirreled away from both of them and screamed, "Uncle Steve! Uncle Steve!"

Her face was wet and puffy, and Kono pulled her into a hug, but she pushed away. "Where's my Uncle Steve? He'll fix this! He always watches out for my Danno! Uncle Steve!"

"Gracie!" Steve lurched off the car.

She spotted him and ran into his arms, hiccupping her words. "Fix it, Uncle Steve. Find my Danno! Please! It's my fault. I was so mean! I said mean things about my Danno!"

"No sweetie," he said, stroking her hair. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Bring him home to me. Promise me, Uncle Steve," she sobbed into his chest. He just held her tight and rocked her.

"Promise me. Please promise me," she sobbed. "Say something. Why won't you promise me?"

He kept opening his mouth, but words were a struggle. Finally, he croaked, "I'm sorry, Gracie. I am so very, very sorry."

…..

Her kitchen had the same chipped, aquamarine paint it carried when Sang was a boy. There were no cupboards, just concrete shelves where she kept jars of spices and pastes. The stove was a single propane burner, and, as usual, it was burning under a pot of fish stew. She made it in the old style, and while he wasn't quite sure what that meant, it tasted better than anything he could find anywhere on all the islands.

Except for the hours she spent every day studying her favorite soap opera, she was in constant motion- a tiny woman always wearing a muumuu and moving about in slippers. She took her wooden spoon out of the stew and waved it in his direction. "You a snakehead still. Always a snakehead."

He slouched at the tiny table in the corner of the room and shook his head. "Not true, Auntie Joon. I don't do that anymore. I'm a better man."

"Not true!" She stabbed the spoon at him. "You bring me great trouble."

"You got skills, Auntie. If anyone can help him, you can."

"No," she shook her head. "He need haole medicine. My herbs don't work on haoles."

"She said I could see the boy if I was a better man. My plan is foolproof. Your nephew is a real live genius. You'll see. I collect the bounty later today, and then I'll have leverage to give up the person who ordered the hit for that maniac, McGarrett."

"You screw up, Sang. You broke him bad. You big plan is no good."

He sighed. She was right. His cousins were experts in insurance scams, but not experts in fake assassinations. They'd slammed the Camaro too hard into the rails. "Stop fussing at me. You're messing up my mojo."

She took one of the three bowls that existed on her shelf, and ladled rice and stew into it. Then she shuffled over to Sang and put it in front of him. "I use shark. It real good today."

He dug into it, breathing in the rich, spicy broth. "Just like I like it, Auntie."

She ignored him and went over to the door of her bedroom, pulling back a curtain. The haole was badly injured, and she could barely make out the features on his bruised and swollen face. She set up an IV for him. Any South Chinese woman worth her salt could run an IV quicker than most haole nurses, but it wasn't enough. She'd been grinding a paste of her best medicines, and as soon as Sang's cousin came back with the belladonna, she could rub it into his scalp. "You think he like to watch Manjalara with me?"

Sang looked up from his food. "You can ask him when he wakes up."

"Bujang and Tembam hold hands today."

"You said they were going to hold hands last week."

She shook her head. "No possible. Drug lord has Bujang in secret castle. Want to feed him to crocodile. Tembam brother need to save Bujang and then they hold hands."

"Auntie, it's a Malaysian soap opera. You don't even speak the language."

She shrugged and went to an ancient refrigerator where she pulled out a container of coconut water and poured a glass for Sang Min. "I no need words. Bujang has mountain of love for Tembam. Everybody see that. That why drug lord try to feed him to crocodile. Drug lord want Tembam for himself."

She went back to the bedroom and looked over the unconscious man in her bed. "I think this haole die before you do good thing, and that just make you snakehead again."

…

TBC….