Disclaimer: See initial chapter.
Grace tilted her head, and seemed to be weighing her father's intentions toward the injured feline before finally taking a step forward and entrusting it to his care. Danny waited, as patiently as he could under the circumstances.
Danny fought the urge to place the injured creature back where Grace had found it, knowing that his daughter would not quickly forgive him for such an act. Instead, he held the cat gingerly, and took a closer look at it.
Barely able to lift its head, the cat mewled pathetically, and something tugged at Danny's heart. He took a steadying breath, and noted the red splotches that marred the brand new beach towel. The cat's eyes were filled with pain, and trust, and Danny had to look away, because there was something about them which seemed almost familiar.
"C'mon, monkey," Danny said, tucking the injured cat to his chest, and blindly reaching for Grace's hand. "We'd better find your Auntie Kono and get this guy to a vet."
"Is he going to be okay, Danno?" Grace's voice was soft, and she leaned close to her father's side.
Danny squeezed Grace's hand reassuringly, his eyes locked on the cat's. Its fur, matted with blood, was striped – black and white. Its belly, where it wasn't red with blood, was white. It was, in Danny's estimation, a good looking animal, for a cat.
"Danny, Grace!" Kono's voice jarred Danny from his inner musings, and he stepped back onto the main path, tugging Grace with him.
"Kono, where's Chin?" Danny peered over Kono's shoulder, and he noticed that Grace, too, was looking for the missing man.
The cat seemed to stir, and, mindful of its injuries, Danny absentmindedly shushed it, almost as he would a hurt, fearful child. Grace stood up on her tiptoes, and ran her fingers soothingly through the cat's fur.
Kono shook her head and pursed her lips. She held her cell phone up in her hand. "He's not here, Danny, and he hasn't texted me to let me know that he's running late. He hasn't responded to any of my texts either."
"Have you tried calling him?" Danny's gut tightened, and he was suddenly on high alert.
He let go of Grace's hand and pulled his own phone out of his pocket. Hitting the speed dial for Chin, he pressed the phone to his ear, and ignored the cat as it licked his thumb.
The faint strains of a familiar song drifted over to them from the path Danny and Grace had just left, and Danny's heart sunk as the theme song to, "The Greatest American Hero," continued to play unimpeded.
Kono blanched, but she quickly schooled her features, and circled around to Danny's side, placing herself between Grace and the path where Chin's phone continued to ring before abruptly cutting off. Danny hit the stop button on his phone without leaving a message, and reclaimed his hold on Grace's hand. Something was wrong.
Kono went to reach for her gun, before realizing, belatedly, that she didn't have it. She shared a look with Danny, and then called out to her cousin. "Chin?"
There was no answer, save for the cat moving restlessly in his hold, and Danny spared it a fleeting look, before turning to peer into the small copse of trees. It seemed eerily quiet to Danny.
"I'll go take a look," Kono whispered.
Danny didn't like it, but he nodded. Grace's hold on his hand tightened and he squeezed back. Kono knelt and pulled something from her boot, and Danny nearly rolled his eyes as he realized that it was a knife. Steve was a terrible influence on the young officer, but right now, he was grateful for it.
"Be careful," Danny said, and he held his breath, wishing that he had a way that he could contact Steve, because they could really use the S.E.A.L.'s help right about now.
"Danno, is Uncle Chin okay?" Grace's voice was subdued.
"I hope so," Danny said, and the cat meowed. It was a long, drawn out sound that raised the hairs on the back of Danny's neck, and caused him to temporarily turn away from watching Kono's slow, methodical approach toward the area they'd heard Chin's ringtone come from.
The cat stared at him, eyes glazed with pain and what appeared to be fear. The cat's fur was puffed out, indicating danger, and Danny made an executive decision. Handing the cat off to Grace, Danny knelt in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Grace, I need you to take the cat and walk back to the entrance and wait for me there," Danny said, trusting his gut, the warning bristles of the cat's fur.
"Grace?" he prodded when the little girl merely blinked at him in response. "Do you understand, honey?"
Grace shuddered and nodded. She clutched the cat closer to herself, and quickly kissed Danny on the cheek. Though her eyes watered, she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "Yes, Danno. Please be careful, and bring Uncle Chin back safely."
Danny smiled, and tugged at one of her braids, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Call your mom, sweetheart, okay?"
Grace's brow furrowed, but she nodded, and she didn't protest when he spun her around and pushed her in the direction of the entrance, which was nearby. It would only take her a few minutes to reach its relative safety, and Danny's gut was screaming at him that the real danger lie where Kono had disappeared into the shadows of the trees.
As soon as Grace's foot touched the short, wooden bridge which would lead her to safety, Danny turned around and followed after Kono. Keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, hoping that the amped up sense of danger that clawed at his gut was nothing, Danny stepped into the copse of woods, and waited for his eyes to adjust to the change in lighting.
"Danny, Chin's phone is here, and there's blood, a couple of footprints, but, Danny," Kono's voice hitched, and she turned to look at him, her eyes wide with worry. "Danny, he's not here."
Kono hadn't touched the phone which was lying face up, on the leaf-littered ground, smack dab in the middle of a small pool of blood. There were two sets of footsteps, one undeniably Chin's, the other belonged to someone taller – the shoe-prints were a couple of sizes bigger than Chin's.
Only one set of footprints appeared to be leaving the small copse of woods, heading toward the secondary path, and they weren't Chin's, which begged the question, where was their team member? Danny scanned the area around the footprints, but there was nothing, no sign of Chin, other than the cell phone and the disturbing pool of cooling blood.
He peered closer at the ground surrounding the phone, the blood which appeared to be relatively fresh, and frowned. He took out his phone and snapped a few photos of the scene, knowing that he'd need to call in HPD, and a forensics team. That he'd need to step aside and let them run the case for their missing comrade. He didn't like it. Knew that Kono would like it even less, but it had to be done.
"Kono, we're going to find him," Danny promised. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and gave it a light squeeze.
Kono swallowed and nodded. She swiped at her eyes, and Danny pointedly looked away, knowing that she wouldn't want him to comfort her right now, that she needed him not to see her tears. She didn't need Danny the father right now, but Daniel Williams, the detective.
It was as they were getting ready to leave, Danny's hand already on his cell, dialing HPD when he saw it, a glint of flashing light dancing off of metal. He dropped to his knees, heedless of the rough ground, and he pulled Kono down with him, warning her with a finger pressed to his lips, and nodding in the direction of the glinting light.
She caught on quickly; all trace of tears and fear for her cousin gone from her face, nothing but grim determination was left. She nodded, and kept her eye trained on where Danny'd seen the flash of light through the canopy of trees.
Danny felt Kono's muscles twitch beneath his hold, and he gripped her tighter, not wanting her to go off half-cocked, like Steve. He really didn't need two impulsive co-workers, and wished that Chin was here, helping to ground his cousin.
Of all of them, Chin was calm, cool and steady. A good man to have by your side in a gun fight. A good man, period. The thought that something bad had happened to him, that he was quite possibly in danger, was something that caused Danny's gut to twist.