Oh, God, did he hurt.

Like, everywhere.

Head pounding. Arms feeling like they were being sliced off at the biceps. Legs he couldn't actually feel but pelvis like some cosmic force had it in the mother of all vices.

He wanted to cry out. Wanted to scream his frustration, his pain. Ask what the hell had happened, what the alarm had meant.

That is why all the girls in town

Oh, for the love of—

Follow you all around

Why, why is that song the backdrop to his misery?

Just like me they long to be

"Danno?"

Close to you

"Danny!"

Steve didn't sound right.

"Dan—ny!"

Definitely not right.

Danny didn't think he could speak. So instead he forced his eyelids open. Just slits at first, wondering what he'd see. Wondering if he'd see Moonscape in these seconds before the vacuum and lack of atmosphere took his life.

Oh, Grace. Baby, I'm so sorry.

Just little slits, and light. Light! Way, way too bright light, even for the bright side of the Moon. What the hell?

"Dan—!"

Steve. Something's wrong with Steve.

He opened his eyes wider and saw—

The fuck?

The Camaro? How the hell was he upside-down looking at the blown-out windshield of his car?

He felt a hand on his forearm and the sound that ripped from his gut right up through his throat and came tearing out of his mouth sounded inhuman. Pain made him see a blinding white even brighter than the sun.

"So-sorry, Dan…Danny," panted his partner, his best friend.

Just like me, they long to be

The blinding white disappeared and Danny dared open his eyes again. A street. The Camaro was upside-down. Asphalt. White and yellow lines. Palm trees. Darker-skinned people with black hair and dark eyes crowding around. Pidgin being spoken.

Hawaii.

How the actual fuck was he in Hawaii?

He heard nothing more from the driver's seat. He was afraid to move his head. "Steve," he whispered, sure it was too quiet for anyone to hear with the backdrop of Hawaii and approaching sirens.

Close to you

"Be okay, Danno," came from his left.

Danny's eyes slipped closed. At this point he didn't care about anything but not feeling white-hot stakes plunging into his body head to toe.

Aaah, aa-aa-aa-aahhh
Close to you

Of course, Danny thought, that would be the last thing he'd fucking hear.

Damn Steve and his music choices anyway.

Aaah, aa-aa-aa-aahhh
Close to you


The next time Danny woke he wasn't hurting at all.

Drugs, his mind supplied. You are being given some serious drugs, Williams.

After all, what else could explain the fact that he felt like he was floating rather than being speared by Hawaiian pololus, right? See? He'd learned something from Mamo's whole ancient Hawaiian culture reenactment thing.

"Danno? You coming back to us?"

Danny groaned. Of course the first voice he would hear would be Steve's. Beat the hell out of Karen Carpenter's, though, he reasoned.

"You're right, Commander McGarrett, it looks like he's coming out of it."

Female. Familiar. Not Kono. Who was that?

"At least his BP's stabilized, and between Max and me, we got the laceration sealed very well. He won't require a transfusion."

Was that woman's voice talking about him? Laceration? A single laceration had accounted for all that agony he was feeling last time he woke up?

"Thanks, Malia."

Ah! Malia. Mrs. Chin Ho. Right.

"I'm just glad it wasn't more severe. Max and I aren't ER doctors. You know, we really need to think about getting a more general practitioner up here for things like this."

"Didn't think we'd need it. Now a DB, a stowaway on our transport and this."

Malia sighed. "Unfortunately it just proves that theory that human nature will thrive no matter what the setting. Even on the Moon."

A pause while Danny digested the profound truth of that statement.

"I've got to hook up with a colleague of mine, send her copies of the scans we did on your partner, send her all my notes. Make sure there's not anything I missed."

"I'll keep an eye on him. Thanks again."

"No problem."

Danny heard a door swish open and then close. He finally decided opening his eyes was a good thing when he felt a shadow fall over him. There, front and center, was "Steve."

"Welcome back. You had me worried there for a minute."

A smile of relief. A face Danny wasn't sure he'd ever seen before that required naming. Later. He'd name it later.

Goddamn, his mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton.

Leave it to Steve to read his mind, bringing an ice chip to his lips. Danny sucked it into his mouth, let the cold coat his tongue and teeth, slide down his throat.

Another ice chip. More soothing. "Do you remember what happened?" Steve asked. So much for soothing.

"No," Danny rasped out and received another ice chip for his efforts.

"Someone was stowed away in the back of our transport. They were opening the rear hatch just as you were about to open the cabin door."

Danny's eyes widened as Steve fed him another ice chip. "Who?"

"Don't know. He, uh…well, he slammed the outer hatch closed, yanked the door open and knifed you, right between a couple ribs."

"Ouch," Danny replied succinctly.

"Yeah, I know. Been there, done that."

"Of course you have," Danny whispered, eyes drifting closed.

"We don't know who this man is; his DNA isn't registered in our database any more than the murder victim's was."

"Not talking?"

"He can't talk," Steve replied.

Danny's eyelids popped open. "You didn't."

"He stabbed you, Danny, and then he tried to stab me. I used reasonable force to subdue him."

Danny sighed, felt a sharp jab in his torso as he did so. His breath hitched. "Reasonable force for you, police brutality for most," he managed to get out on the exhale.

Steve snorted. "Better than putting you in a drawer next to John Doe Number One."

"That is true," Danny acquiesced. "Tired."

"Sleep, Danny. Stan's bringing Grace by in a couple of hours once she's done with her satellite classes."

"Wake me?"

"Of course," Steve replied, and Danny felt his partner's hand on his forearm as he slowly drifted away on a cloud of drug-induced sleep.

At least this time, Steve's grip hadn't felt like it was ripping his arm right out of its socket.


The next time consciousness reared its ugly head Danny thought someone was taking a chainsaw to every extremity he had. He heard himself scream, actually scream as sirens pierced his skull, as hands jostled him, touching everywhere, shoving him, pushing him.

"You're going to be okay, shh, we're stabilizing you, Detective."

Okay? He was hardly okay! He hurt like he was Angel in the bathroom scene of Scarface for Christ's sake, what the hell? He'd been fine the last time he woke up! He'd only been stabbed in the ribs, what the—?

"We've got to inject something for the pain or he won't stop fighting us long enough to assess his injuries."

"I'll make the call to Kings."

"Detective Williams, you need to stop trying to move."

Move? He wasn't trying to move! He was trying to die here, not move!

"Dr. Singh says no-can-do on the painkillers, not with the extent of his injuries. We're six minutes out, Jo, hold him together."

"Easier said than done," was the woman's muttered response to the man's voice.

Danny moaned. It was the best he could do under the circumstances. He wanted to know where Steve had gone. Had Grace already been to see him and something had gone wrong? Where was Malia? What was with these sirens, they didn't have sirens on the Moon!

"Detective Williams, we'll be at the hospital shortly."

Where was Steve, he'd been right there feeding Danny ice chips, telling him to go to sleep! He was right there!

"Steve!" he managed to spit out of his mouth, felt wetness cover his lips, his chin, his nose, what the hell was that?

Voices, voices, the one called Jo and the man, words Danny couldn't hear, couldn't decipher, his body screaming way louder now than anyone else might be.

"Your partner, right?"

"Steve!" he got out again, then choked on liquid bubbling up in his throat, why'd it taste like he was sucking on rebar for God's sake?

"I'm sorry, Detective Williams. I'm so sorry."

He went ice cold all over.

Something must have happened after Danny went to sleep, something must have happened in the tiny hospital ward adjacent to Max's autopsy room, and Steve…he…

No was the only word Danny could think now. No…

What he wouldn't give to have Karen Carpenter back now.

Steve…

He slipped away once more.