Another day, another chapter :). You can call in procrastination! I hate studying for finals... On with the story! Thanks so much for the follows favorites and reviews! Or for just reading! Hope you're enjoying :)
Warning: some bad language. Just beware
**************************************linebreak*** ***********************************
"Danny? Danny. Danny!"
"Huh?" Danny finally snapped out of it and looked up at Steve. "Wha.. What'd you say?"
Steve, Chin, and Kono were looking at him with concern.
"I said are you alright? What just happened?" Steve said.
"Nothing. No, I'm fine I just zoned out for a second... It's hot out here, there are no clouds on this damn island and it's making me tired." Danny replied. He realized how pathetic that sounded, but he couldn't think straight right now. What are the odds that he gets a box with ten fingers, and now they get handed a fingerless victim? Danny Williams didn't believe in coincidence. Being a cop as long as he had made sure of that.
He could tell Steve didn't believe him, but wasn't going to press the issue. Not in front of Chin, Kono, Max and the majority of HPD anyway.
With one last worried glance at Danny, Steve started giving orders.
"Alright Chin and Kono you guys stay here and find out what you can from the crime scene. Danny and I are gonna follow Max and get preliminary details on our vic. Not much we can do until we identify this guy." Steve said.
"Roger that boss," Kono said, but she was looking at Danny. He nodded at her and gave her his best reassuring smile, but he knew she didn't buy it. Neither did Chin and of course Steve. He was so screwed.
********************************************linebr eak**********************************
On their way to the Camaro, Steve and Danny spotted the two hikers who had found the body speaking to an HPD officer.
"Excuse us for a second," Steve said walking up to the group.
"You the guys who found the body?" Danny asked.
"Yeah man." One of the hikers replied. "We usually never come up this way, but we took a wrong turn and ended up out here. When I first saw the body, I thought the guy was hurt. It wasn't until we went up to check on him that we realized he was dead."
The second man nodded.
"This path isn't travelled very often. Barely from what I can tell. If you two hadn't stumbled upon it I'm not sure we would've found this guy..." Steve said, more to himself than to the hikers. Danny could practically see the wheels turning in his brain as he came up with different ideas.
Steve McGarret's brain is a not a place Danny would ever want to be.
He turned towards the hikers. "Thanks for the help guys. Just leave your names with this officer right here incase we have anymore questions."
The hikers nodded and Danny turned towards Steve.
"Let's get to Max's and see what he's found so far." Steve said.
Danny only nodded, following Steve through the obnoxious woods back to the car.
********************************************linebr eak********************************
"What's good Max?" Danny asked, walking into the ME's office.
"Commander. Detective." Max replied. "I obviously haven't had time to conduct a full autopsy but I've been looking over the body and noticed a few details."
"Did you find out who our vic is?" Steve asked.
"Unfortunately not as of yet. I'm going to send DNA to the HPD crime lab as soon as we're done here. It's possible they can identify this man if he's in the system. I don't assume you've located the fingers?" Max asked hopefully.
Steve shook his head. "Not yet Max."
Danny could feel Steve turn to look at him. He tried his hardest to keep a straight face. The downside to being partners as long as they have is that Steve can practically read him like book. If Danny didn't figure this out soon he'd have to tell Steve and hope that he won't kill him for keeping it a secret for so long. He really didn't want to drag his team into his problems. But if the fingers he received belonged to this guy on the table, Danny would be compromising an investigation. And that was a big deal.
"You uh, you said that you had some details for us Max?" Danny asked.
Steve frowned once at Danny before turning back to Max.
"Yes. While examining what's left of our victims hands, I can see marks from places where the knife must have slipped," Max began. "As you can probably deduce, the victim was most probably alive when his fingers were removed and fought back against his captor leading to these shallow cuts on his hand."
"So he was tortured." Steve said.
"This guy either did something somebody didn't like, or they wanted something from him." Danny put in.
"Cutting off all of his fingers... If it was for information I wonder what this guy knew." Steve replied.
"Whatever it was... It was enough to kill him for." Danny put in.
"Wonder if he got the information he needed." Steve mused.
"If he didn't he's going to be looking for his next victim." Danny said, turning to Steve. "And we don't even know who this one is yet."
Steve nodded. "Alright Max we're gonna head back to HQ, see what Chin and Kono got from the crime scene. Call us when you've got something."
"Of course Commander." Max said, nodding at the five-0 members and turning to the body.
Danny really needed to know who this guy was. And fast.
****************************************linebreak* ********************************
The drive back to HQ was pretty much silent. Danny could feel Steve turn to look at him everyone once in a while, start to open his mouth, and then close it again.
When they were pulling into the parking lot, Steve decided to go for it.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on with you?" He asked.
"What are you talking about, nothing is going on with me." Danny replied.
"I know you're lying Danny. And you know that I know that you're lying." Steve tried again.
"What is this, some sort of new NAVY SEAL interrogation trick? Confuse somebody until they admit what you wanna hear?" Danny asked sarcastically.
"You're squinting. And now you're avoiding too. You're lying Danny." Steve said, losing patience quickly.
"Would you just drop it Steve? Please. Drop it."
"No. I'm not dropping it. You're coming to my house tonight and we're going to have a couple of beers and you are going to tell me what's going on Danny." Steve said forcefully.
Before Danny could even respond, Steve got out of the car and started walking towards the office.
"Shit" Danny whispered. He smacked the dashboard in frustration. "Shit! Damn persistent SEAL!"
Danny made his decision at that moment. He couldnt hide this anymore. He was going to tell Steve. He was gonna go to his house later and tell Steve everything. Then he would just tough out Steve yelling at him about putting himself in danger like that and accept his teams help in whatever was going on. He had Grace to think about. He couldn't get himself killed and leave Step-Stan to raise her. Stan was an idiot.
Decision made, Danny climbed out of his car and followed Steve to the office.
******************************************linebrea k***********************************
Danny spent the rest of his day pretty much hiding in his office from Steve. After getting virtually nothing from the crime scene, Chin and Kono went over to the HPD crime lab.
Danny knew he could trust Fong, but if Kono or Chin brought up the fingerless victim... He wasn't sure if the tech would decide to tell them before Danny got a chance to. If he did, Danny was screwed. Even more than he already was.
Danny's phone snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Detective Williams." He said curtly.
"Hello Detective." A mans voice said. Danny didn't recognize his voice. But he recognized a threatening tone when he heard one.
"Who the hell is this?" Danny asked.
"I assume you received the gift I sent you?"
"Yeah... It was really nice thanks. Why don't you tell me who and where you are so I can return the favor?" Danny replied.
"Don't worry Detective we'll meet. When the time is right. I need something from you and I intend to get it."
"Well I'm not really one for favors. Who was in the box?"
"You'll find out soon enough. And detective, if you alert anyone on your special little five-0 task force about anything that's going on, I'm going to drop bodies faster than you can catch them. Starting with your pretty little ex-wife."
"Listen to me you son of a bitch-" Danny started, only to stop when he realized the man had hung up.
Danny put the phone down and put his head in his hands. Who the hell was this son of a bitch? If he knew about Rachel, chances are he knew about Grace. And Danny could not risk either of their lives. Or the lives of anyone on his team. He couldn't tell anyone about this, not now. He had to watch his own back and somehow make it out of this mess on his own... Preferably alive.
So much for telling Steve.
*******************************************linebre ak********************************
With his feet up on the coffee table and a beer in his hand, Danny sat on Steve's couch and dreaded what was about to happen. He had tried a least fifteen different excuses to get out of coming to Steve's place but Steve was adamant and here he was, having a staring contest with his best friend.
"We've talked about this Steven. The NAVY SEAL death stare doesn't work on me. I'm immune." Danny said.
"I shouldn't have to use my death stare to get you to talk to me Danny. I'm your friend and partner. If something is wrong you know you can always come to me. Whatever it is Danny I'll help you."
"How many times do I have to tell you Steve there's nothing wrong!"
"How many times do I have to tell you that I can tell when you're lying to me?" Steve shot back.
Well shit. This was getting heated fast. But if the only way to get Steve off his back was to piss him off, Danny had to do it. No one knew how to piss off Steve McGarret quite like Danny Williams. No one else had the guts to either.
"It's funny that you're accusing me of hiding something!" Danny said angrily.
Here we go.
"Oh and what's that supposed to mean?" Steve asked loudly, already shifting forwards on the couch.
"I mean that every time you have a problem, you run off all Rambo and take of everything yourself! Blowing up whatever you can in the process!"
"That's not the same Danny you know that I have to do some things on my own!" Steve defended himself furiously. He hated having his actions questioned. And Danny knew that. Danny was his partner, and up until this moment, Steve thought he understood.
"Oh you had to? Like when you had to break into Governor Jameson's mansion and get yourself arrested! How about when you broke out of jail after that? Or when you decided to run off to North Korea with Jenna Kaye? And since that didn't go bad enough for you, you thought you'd run off to North Korea again with Catherine! And do not even get me started with running off to Japan for two weeks! How dare you come to me now and yell at me for keeping secrets when you've never trusted me with anything in the past?!"
"Of course I trusted you Danny! But I couldn't put you in danger like that! I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you because of me! But whatever is going on with you Danny I can help you! But you need to tell me!"
"I can't! Why don't you understand that?"
"You CAN'T or you WON'T?"
"I... I won't!"
"Why not Danny don't you trust me?"
"No!"
And that was it. Danny swore the look on Steve's face would have him feeling guilty every second of every day for the rest of his natural born life. Steve practically sank back into the couch.
"You don't trust me?" He whispered.
Danny almost lost it and spilled everything right then and there. But this asshole threatened his family. And Danny couldn't take that chance. As much as he hated hurting Steve like this -and he really hated it- he knew it was the only way to get his persistent partner off his back.
"I gotta go." He said, standing up and running for the door.
Steve didn't move. He didn't get up. He didn't try to follow. He just stared ahead with a blank expression on his face.
*********************************************lineb reak*****************************
Danny got into his Camaro and sped away as fast as he could. He sped for ten minutes before finally pulling over on the side of the road.
"FUCK!" He screamed, slamming his head down on the steering wheel. "I'm sorry Steve. I'm so damn sorry."
He sat there for a few minutes before heading off towards his apartment.
His phone started to ring.
"What?" He answered.
"Danny!" The voice on the other end of the phone was frantic. It was also a voice Danny would recognize anywhere. "They're coming for you Danny! You need to grab some things and go!"
"Woah woah woah. Who's coming after me? What the hell have you done?" Danny asked angrily.
"There's no time to explain! Go get some things and find a safe place to stay Danny! I'll contact you soon and explain everything. I'm so sorry!"
The line went dead.
Danny pulled into his usual parking space and stared at his phone. It rang again.
"What the.." Danny muttered. "Hello?"
"Danny, it's Fong. I found out who the fingers belong to. But I'm not sure how it connects to you."
"Well... Whose are they?"
Fong told him.
"What?!" Danny asked in disbelief.
"Does that name mean something to you...?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, it's just not the name I was expecting."
"Danny-"
"Listen Charlie, I gotta go. Thanks a lot man I owe you one."
Danny hung up the phone before he could respond.
This didn't make sense. He knew this guy, but why someone send him his fingers? What did they want from Danny that they couldn't get from him?
He stepped out of his car. Maybe if he hadn't been so lost in thought, he'd notice the man coming up behind him.
Maybe if he'd been paying attention, he'd hear the man closing in.
But he hadn't.
Something slammed into the back of his head, and he was out before he hit the pavement.
**************************************linebreak*** ********************************
I am SO incredibly nervous about this chapter you have no idea.
I figured the only way Steve would give up on Danny's secret was if Danny hurt him and this what I came up with.
Please let me know what you think! Don't be too harsh if you didn't like it but I hope you did!
We're getting some action now and some answers soon too.
Please review :)
