Wow! Thanks so much for all the reviews and people following this short story! For those who've read what I've posted of "Skin Deep" or those who're going to read it, yes, I am planning on finishing it. I want to get through this short first then go back to the chapters I haven't posted of that story and edit them more.

PS To those who let me know about Scott Caan having a new baby that he's visiting on the mainland totally put my mind at ease! I was worried he was getting bored with the show and wanted to leave or something! S'all good now... I can breathe. Ha ha :)

Thanks to everyone for reading/following/reviewing/favoriting!

Oz

Steve reacted like the trained soldier he was; in the blink of an eye he drew his weapon to match fire power with fire power. Sure he was probably risking getting shot but he had no doubt he'd be able to fire first. Either way, the shots would alert the officer outside and he'd be able to rush in to help Danny even if Steve did go down.

"Steve, no!" Danny barked out. "And Hadley put the damn gun down! We talked about this." Confused as all hell, Steve held his weapon steady not willing to give it up just yet. Nor did he take his eyes of his intended target.

Still his partner didn't seem all that worried at the moment so he decided to give both men in the room the benefit of the doubt.

"What's going on Danny?" He asked staring down the trembling SWAT officer before him. "And how the hell did he get in!?"

"Well Steven he walked through the door," Danny replied bluntly. At that Steve couldn't help but go wide eyed and give his partner a hard stare.

"The guy who's pointing a gun at us and just admitted to shooting you... you and the officer outside just… let him in? You want to tell me why?" He snarled.

"Because I don't believe he shot me on purpose and he's definitely not going to shoot you. Hadley… Mitch, come on babe, put the gun down before this ninja decides to shoot you on principal alone," Danny urged. Steve turned back to the SWAT officer who trembled even more before lowering his gun and crumbling to his knees.

"I'm sorry," he heaved shaking his head. "God I'm so sorry." Sensing there was a massive piece to the puzzle that he was missing Steve holstered his own weapon then was able to easily removed Hadley's from his own shaky hands.

"Okay," Steve said trying to get his heart rate back to normal. "Now either of you wanna tell me what's going on here?" he asked.

"Mitch showed up a bit before you arrived, he was waiting in my room when I came back from another scan so your guard dog outside didn't fail he was following me around the hospital," Danny explained. "And I let Hadley stay because we had a brief chat and... Well, hell, look at him." Steve did as his partner instructed and really took a good long look at the blubbering mess of a man on the floor.

Mitch Hadley was pale and sickly, he looked like it had been days since he'd eaten and weeks since he'd had a good night sleep. Then Steve thought of all the people he'd spoken to recently who had nothing but good things to say about the true blue officer. In fact the whole SWAT team had been sending he and the rest of Five-0 constant reminders not to hurt their missing man should they find him first.

Glancing back at his partner Steve frowned and opened his mouth to say more but the detective cut him off once again;

"Oh that and the fact that gun's either filled with blanks or not loaded," he added. Hadley's head shot up and he went wide eyed.

"W, what?! H, how did you know!?" He exclaimed. Steve ignored him for a moment and checked the magazine for ammunition; sure enough it was full of bullets but they were all marked as blanks. Looking at Danny with a raised eyebrow Steve silently shrugged looking to get more answers.

"No cop as trained as a SWAT officer would constantly keep his finger wrapped around the trigger especially when he's shaking like a leaf," the detective explained. "That and I don't think Officer Hadley here wants to kill anyone... I think he's here to commit suicide by cop. Isn't that right Mitch?" Steve turned to the obviously distraught man on the floor and finally saw a look of absolute resolution. Hadley was giving up; on everything.

"I can't do this anymore," the man replied shaking his head. "I can't betray my brothers in uniform anymore than I already have but I also can't betray my family. It's just... Jesus Christ... it's too much and I'm not strong enough. I want this to be over; for everything to be done." Steve didn't know whether to be impressed or surprised that Danny had caught on to something so quickly despite being partially incapacitated.

"See?" Danny slurred a bit. His owlish blink told Steve the drugs were finally hitting his friend and it'd be only moments before the man was asleep again. He figured Danny had actually been forcing himself to stay awake on the adrenal rush of the current situation. A situation that would have ended much differently had Danny not stopped Steve from shooting first and asking questions later.

"I got it Danno," Steve reassured his flagging partner. "S'okay I'll hear him out. I promise."

"Y'better," Danny mumbled. Then he gave a drugged half smile before his head lulled to one side and he was sound asleep.

Sure that his partner was comfortably asleep and making sure he was still between the injured man and a potential threat; Steve turned to Hadley who still had yet to move from his knees on the floor.

"You've got five minutes to convince me I shouldn't fulfill your death wish," he said still a little angry. How could he not be? Hadley lowered his gaze fresh tears threatening in his eyes.

"I don't even know where to begin," he said quietly. Steve sighed and pulled together the two plastic chairs in the room before plopping Hadley on one and taking the other.

"Start with who shot my partner and we'll go from there," he ordered. Hadley however shook his head and sighed.

"It's more complicated than that," he huffed out. The tears were slowing now but the man was clearly still carrying the weight of his world on his shoulders. "It started about two months ago; SWAT was called to a scene where these local junkies had taken a bunch of tourists hostage at Bishop's Museum."

"Five-0 was put on standby for that because we were already swamped with cases and the Governor said the negotiator and SWAT were handling it," Steve nodded. He still remembered seeing the news report of the hostage situation and feeling the itch to get to the scene as fast as possible to help out. Then Danny had smacked him in the face with a phonebooks worth of paperwork and said; "Down boy, paperwork first, heroism later. The Governor said they got this."

"Yeah, and we handled it," Hadley replied with a nod. "It was a text book take down and there were a few scrapes and bruises but everyone walked away unharmed. There was this little German girl; she was visiting Hawaii with her mom and they were on the tour that got taken hostage. The girl had tripped and hurt her ankle pretty bad when the group was being herded into two separate rooms so when we got the bad guys it happened that I was the one who carried her out.'

'She was pretty shaken up because she and her mother had been separated during the whole thing. I calmed her down because I speak a little German and kept her close until we could reunite her with her mother."

"As any good officer would," Steve found himself saying. The more Hadley spoke the less the SEAL saw a dirty cop in the man but rather someone forced to do something horrible. Still, he would bite his tongue on further comments until he heard the full story.

"Yeah," Hadley snorted sarcastically. "Maybe I should have left her." Snapping his head back in shock Steve glared at the man and couldn't help but rest his hand on his gun once more. Clearly seeing this, Hadley was quick to raise his hands slightly and shake his head. "I know, I know," he said. "That makes me sound like a dick but Commander, that little girl turned out to be Oliver Utzel's niece." With that new bit of information, Steve took his hand off his weapon and folded his arms across his chest.

"I'm listening," he urged.

"Her mother was extremely grateful and wanted to give me a, I dunno, reward or something but I told her it wasn't necessary and I thought that was the end of it," Hadley shrugged.

"But it wasn't," Steve guessed. A haunted look came over the SWAT officer's face and Steve was sure it was a look that would take years to soothe away.

"No," Hadley said quietly. "A week after the operation a package shows up at my door. You know what was inside?" Steve simply shook his head so the officer went on; "A million dollars in hard cash."

"Just like that?" Steve said nearly choking on his own shock. Hadley nodded and shrugged as if such an amount showing up on your doorstep was an every day thing.

"I tried to find the mother but their passports showed they'd gone back to Germany," the officer explained. "Failing that, I just couldn't let go the fact that no one just drops that kind of money and leaves the country so I, being an idiot, decided to look deeper into where it could have come from."

"Let me guess, that's when you found out whose niece you'd helped out," Steve offered.

"Not at first," Hadley admitted. "At first I couldn't get anything, there was no bank on the islands that would admit to releasing so much cash in one transaction. But me, being an eager moron had forensics pull prints from the letter that had been attached to the package. The prints came back as Falk Wolfrik." Something tickled in Steve's gut and he couldn't help but chuff out a short laugh. "How is any of this funny?" Hadley demanded.

Shaking his head, Steve gave Danny a quick look before turning back to the SWAT officer.

"It's not, it's just the first time Danny and I heard that name we were 23 hours into a 48 hour stretch with no sleep. I said the name, he said "bless you" and we couldn't stop laughing for almost twenty minutes," the SEAL explained.

He remembered the moment well, he and Danny had nearly come to blows with each other because they were both extremely tired and pissed off that another lead had fallen through on them. They'd been alone in the office, both refusing to admit defeat for the day when finally they caught a break. A police report from the mainland came through on "Falk Dolphus Wolfrik" who'd been involved in a hate crime.

Steve had manhandled Danny away from the computer table and read the name out loud, that's when the Jersey detective decided to speak and the two of them had dissolved into side splitting laughter no matter how inappropriate it was. They weren't laughing at the name or the crime, they had just needed a random excuse to laugh and reconnect as best friends.

"No sleep and no food does tend to make people a bit crazy," Hadley replied. "So you know about Wolfrik?"

"His involvement here on the islands and sloppy clean ups basically lead us straight to Utzel," Steve nodded growing serious again. "Unfortunately he was also one of the ones killed during our raid last week."

"Good," Hadley snarled. "I wish I'd pulled the trigger."

"Well you did pull that trigger didn't you?" Steve said none to politely. Hadley had the decency to look extremely apologetic. However at the same time his cheeks rouged a bit in embarrassment.

"Your partner got hit by my ricochet," he explained nervously. "I uh... I wasn't aiming for him." Steve rolled his eyes and sighed.

"So what? You're going to tell me it was an accident? After admitting you're working with a terrorist bomber?" He asked incredulously.

"I am NOT working with that monster!" Hadley snarled. Steve hissed at him to be quiet when the man's voice got a bit to loud. Again Hadley snapped his mouth shut and looked extremely sorry. Both glanced at Danny who murmured in his sleep but failed to wake. They waited until Danny was once again quiet and settled before returning to their conversation.

"Tell me how you went from being a hero to... Whatever it is you're doing now," Steve asked. Hadley nodded and sat back running a hand through his hair.

"Apparently I raised some flags with Wolfrik and Utzel when I started poking around that million," he explained. "Few days after I ran the name Wolfrik shows up at my door and tells me I shouldn't have been sticking my nose where it didn't belong. I said I didn't care and have him the money back... That I didn't want to see him again and he should stay away from me."

"Okay," Steve said going along with this so far. "So what happened next?" When Hadley's face paled again and his eyes started to fill with tears Steve knew he was about to find out what Utzel had on the officer.

Pulling out his phone while fighting tears, Hadley tapped on the screen before handing the phone to Steve.

"A month ago I get this video," he squeaked. Steve raised an eyebrow but turned to the screen and pressed play. An older man sat clearly bound to a chair and sporting a black eye.

"Whatever they want son don't give it to them! You're a good boy and your mother and I understand anything you- ugh!" Even Steve had to flinch when the man's words were cut off by a powerful blow to the face.

While the captive man tried to regain himself a voice off camera spoke;

"Officer Hadley, you will soon receive instructions on how you will be helping the cause, deny us and your mother and father will suffer the consequences." Steve tried to see if there was anything in the video that he recognized but had no luck. "In case you doubt us..." The voice trailed off as a woman's wail of pain sounded through the speakers. The result had the man tied to the chair struggling wildly.

"Stay away from her you bastards! Silvia! No! Don't hurt her please! You sick-" The video cut out to a black screen that simply read, "We'll be in touch."

Taking a breath, Steve put the phone down and looked up to the SWAT officer who was in tears yet again.

"You see?" He said almost at a whisper. "That's Wolfrik's voice... Utzel showed up at my doorstep just as I was leaving to get help. He sat me down said all I'd have to do is provide information and he'd eventually let my parents go... Christ Commander, he had a lock of my mother's hair. They knew I'd do anything for my parents." Steve thought back a couple years when he'd been forced to listen to his father suffer at the hands of a mad man. No child, especially one who's fully capable of defending their parent, should feel that helpless.

"I'm sorry," Steve replied. And he truly meant it. "So what kind of information did he want?"

"Reaction protocols first," Hadley sniffed. "Then he set it up so every time I hear clicking over the radio I'd have to report to him whatever the SWAT team was doing. But then he started getting me to tell him when and where SWAT raids or exercises were happening. I said no at first, begged him but what I got was another video of my dad getting beat up... That was two weeks ago, Commander I don't even know what condition my parents are in but I know they'd be ashamed of me for what I've done and that I just can't live with anymore."

"Mitch," Steve said as carefully as possible. "I'm sorry Uztel has your family. Five-0 and I will do everything to get them back I swear. But... that raid, how quickly things went bad…"

"I know," Hadley replied sadly. "I know my career is over. My life is over because I was too stupid not to trust the law and think I could go it alone. Yes, I told Utzel about the raid but only about a half hour before it happened. I held off as long as I could."

"Probably why he was the only one to get away," Steve explained. Then he glanced at Danny then back again. "And shooting my partner?" The rouge of embarrassment once again tinged the now nervous officer's cheeks.

"You uh... you moved to quickly," Hadley mumbled. Mumble or not, Steve heard it and went stiff as a board.

"What?" He asked plainly. His heart started beating a little faster. Hadley couldn't even meet his eyes now.

"Utzel wanted to "cut off the head of the snake"," the officer explained. Steve's heart started racing.

"You mean..."

"I was aiming for you," Hadley admitted. "When I told Utzel about the raid he was pissed, he said it was take out the head of Five-0 or my parents die. I hesitated though, the clicking came through and I panicked, by the time I took Hapuka down you were heading up the stairs. I tried to aim for your leg, a non-lethal shot but it hit the metal railing and... And I saw the detective fall. I took off. I knew I'd finally crossed the line and every morning since this started when I look at myself in the mirror I'm sick to my stomach."

By now Steve was almost shaking in rage, not just because he was looking at the man who'd almost paralyzed his partner but the fact that the bullet that had done so was meant for him. He'd been running around playing hero and it had cost Danny dearly.

"Commander?" Hadley asked tentatively. Steve clenched and unclenched his jaw before looking up at the man.

"What?" He snarled.

"There's uh... There's more," the officer said with a bit of a tremble. Steve didn't verbally respond, he couldn't the metallic taste of adrenaline fueled by rage had filled his mouth and he didn't dare speak until everything was out in the open. Instead he just glared and thankfully Hadley took that as a sign to continue. "Utzel contacted me this morning. He... He wanted me to finish off the detective and to shoot you. That's why I came here with blanks. I was hoping you'd stop me; I even wrote down a full confession back at my apartment."

By now Steve was sure he was shaking in anger; his whole body taught with emotion. For a second, he actually did consider going for his weapon but his "inner Danny" forbade him from losing control.

"You took an oath," Steve ground out. Hadley looked like the words were worse than a physical blow. "More so you have an exemplary record up until now. I am sorry about your parents and like I said will do everything we can to get them back and bring Utzel to justice. I just have to know one thing."

"T, that being?" Hadley gulped. Steve sat forward and leaned into the man's personal space.

"How can you justify going against everything you've trained to be, risking other parents and sons and daughters, for a means to an end that would undoubtedly end in bloodshed?" he asked. "I would have killed for my father too but to be a party to the death of possibly hundreds of people in a terror plot? Risking so much because you didn't want to ask for help? Hadley, I need something more, anything to convince me." The officer shrugged with a teary smile;

"They aren't my real parents," he said. "My real father was a crack addicted mean son of a bitch. My mother was an abusive drunk and together they made the first few years of my life horrific and painful. The authorities took me out of that home four times only to return me a few days later without sufficient reason to keep those animals at bay. Finally when I was eight my mother killed my father in a drunken rage while I was locked in a closet. She then drank herself to death and it took neighbors three days to find me half dead.'

'The Hadley's were my foster parents but after three months of me being the worst foster kid someone could ever have, they adopted me out right. I still have no idea why. They never stopped telling me they cared and wanted me to do good with my life... Commander, they saved me when no one else could. It may make me sound like a bastard, it may be betraying the oath, but yeah, without them the world can burn for all I care. And I'm really sorry, honestly sorry that that's how I feel because I know this is exactly the man they didn't want me to be."

Steve was silent for several moments. His first thought was how in the hell this guy had passed the psych test to get on SWAT but he reminded himself sometimes even HE was shocked to get through an evaluation after a tough year.

The second thing he thought was just how much pain he could see in Hadley's eyes; how much the man had clearly had to overcome. Steve thought about Danny and Grace and them losing Matt to a drug dealing scumbag. Maybe it was the fact that Steve didn't really know how strong a familial bond could be because he never really had it growing up.

Then Steve thought about how angry he was at himself for letting Danny down. Letting his team down and realized, yeah, he would do anything to get Danny home to his daughter or Chin and Kono and Lou home safe to their families.

"Ohana," Steve breathed out.

"Exactly," Hadley nodded with a spark of hope in his eyes. "Ohana." The two men sat in silence for a bit. Steve was going over everything he'd heard and Hadley no doubt waiting for whatever Steve intended on doing with him.

The only sound in the room was the soft beeps and blips of the monitors watching Danny's vitals and making sure everything was okay. Danny stirred drawing both men's eyes, the detective's brow furrowed a bit in pain but smoothed when Steve put a hand on his partner's wrist.

Finally the Navy SEAL made a decision; he looked up at Hadley once again. The officer practically sat at attention, his eyes scared but accepting.

"Commander McGarrett, I'll face whatever punishment I know I rightly deserve," he blurted out. "I'm just asking… begging you to please help me save my parents. What happens after that? I really don't care." Steve worked his jaw a bit.

"You were really planning on dying today weren't you?" he asked simply. Hadley closed his eyes sucked in a deep breath then nodded.

"Yeah."

"Not going to happen," Steve said. He stood up glancing at Danny and feeling the urge but now also the means to do something to make up for everything he'd done wrong since this case began. "You're going to give Utzel exactly what he wants with a little more."

"What?" Hadley asked in disbelief. Steve nodded handing his own, very much so lethal, side-arm to the officer much to Hadley's pale faced shock.

"You're going to shoot me and take me hostage," Steve explained. Hadley's mouth floundered open as the man was momentarily too stunned to speak. "Non-lethal, like you were aiming for in during the raid; left shoulder would be best," he added. Finally Hadley made a noise between a grunt and choking on his own disgust.

"I, I don't understand," he stuttered. "Wh, what? WHY!?"

"S'exactly what I'd like ta know," said a sleepy voice from behind them. Steve turned to see Danny was just barely awake but judging by the look on his face he'd heard enough to be mighty pissed off. "I catch five minutes and wake up t'find y'got a death wish? I said no one is shootin' anyone and I meant it."

"It'll just be a flesh wound Danny," Steve said as if it was nothing at all. Hadley choked on his shock once again while Danny's tired eyebrows hit his hair line. "Besides, I'm not the one taking the biggest risk here… you are." The detective rolled his eyes undoubtedly knowing Steve was already concocting some crazy plan.

"Enlighten me," he sighed. Steve shrugged.

"Simple really, before he shoots me…" Hadley made another noise of disgust and shock but Steve continued. "… he's going to kill you." Danny blinked, blinked again then waved a hand through the air.

"Oh, is that all? Well lets get this party started shall we?" he replied dripping with sarcasm. However the detective narrowed his eyes at his partner. "I know what you're thinking Steven and I don't like it. I don't like it at all."

"Tough," Steve replied. "Now be a good corpse and shut up."

"Steve…" Danny tried one last time. The Navy SEAL got to his partner's side and put a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder.

"Let me do this buddy," he said. "I get close to Utzel I can end this." Then turning to Hadley he added, "And get your parents back home safe."

"While possibly getting killed in the process! Utzel is a sociopath! He's planning something big and has been using me to do it!" Hadley exclaimed. "I've already caused to much damage I wont and can't be responsible for any more! Please Commander, don't ask me to keep going." Steve charged forward grabbing the man by the lapels and shaking him slightly.

"Tough," he barked. "You lost the right to say "no" when you took a shot at me. Parents or no parents, you had a choice and you made it so now I'm making mine." The shake seemed to have the desired affect as the SWAT officer took a breath despite the lines of emotional pain all over his face and nodded.

"You're right," he said quietly. "Okay… okay I'll... I'll do it."

"Good," Steve nodded. "Now let's—" It seemed like the fates were against things going right as the officer on duty outside chose that moment to step through the door.

"Commander McGarrett I'm just at the end of m—Whoa! HPD get your hands in the air!"

"No, no, no, no, no! Wait!" Steve urged. However the young HPD officer and a pretty spooked and confused SWAT officer was a recipe for disaster. The young officer aimed and in his panic, Hadley didn't released his weapon but started to raise it. In surrender or defense no one could know.

"Drop the weapon!" the officer ordered. It was too little to late and Steve knew it. He also knew Hadley was their only source of information as to where Utzel might be and what he was planning. The SEAL surged forward to try and stop a disaster. Danny desperately reached out trying to get the officer to stop what he was doing. Hadley's eyes were wide as saucers as his fingers twitched ominously around the trigger.

A shot rang out; cries of three men sounded through the room while the forth fell to the ground bloodied and still.

No, it's not a death fic... but while I was finishing this chapter and starting the next, the hamster in my head was singing, "Whump, whump, whump, whump, WHUMPITY WHUUUUUUMP!" over and over and over again. LOL.

Hope you liked it, reviews certainly welcome and loved!

Oz