Both of their phones simultaneously started buzzing, as soon as Steve and Chin had reached the exit of the cave again that had proven to be yet another dead end on this very slow case which seemed to be dragging for days now.
"Huh… Danny tried calling me – isn't it his evening off?"
Steve immediately nodded, frowning slightly. "Yeah, he tried me, too… And yes, he's off tonight. Preparing his place for Grace this weekend." He sounded distracted, already trying to call his friend back. "He's not answering his phone."
Chin smiled slightly at the concern he could easily read on the other man's face. "I'm sure he's fine, brah. But why don't we swing by his place then, just to be sure… And let me call Kono, see if he contacted her as well." He hadn't.
Five minutes later, they were on their way back, Steve changing lanes aggressively while once again trying his friend. "Dammit… why doesn't he just pick up?!"
"There could be any number of reasons, you know that," Chin replied calmly. "You need to try and relax, my friend. I'm sure this is nothing. – And even if it is, he'll still be fine. Danny's actually an extremely competent cop, you know?"
"Oh, really?!" Steve shot back sarcastically. Then, much more seriously again: "He's my partner, Chin, so I know. But he's also injured right now."
Chin let the tense words stand for a moment, before asking quietly: "You worried this may be about the guy who visited Danny at the office the other day…?"
"I don't know, I mean… it could be. I have no idea. But I have a bad feeling about this."
Chin seemed about to ask more, but hesitated then before finally just nodding. "I know; and that's why we're going to see him. But it really might be nothing, so try not to panic right now, okay?"
"I'm not panicking, I'm just," he seemed to be looking for the right words for a moment, before finally finishing with a mildly embarrassed half-shrug: "...reasonably concerned."
Chin couldn't help but smile slightly at that. "That you are, my friend; that you are."
"Danny?!" They'd both heard the dull thumping sound as soon as they had approached their friend's door. Steve continued knocking loudly. "Danny? Open the door!" When nothing happened, he simply rammed it open.
They found Danny on the floor, kneeling on somebody's back and awkwardly closing a pair of handcuffs around the man's wrists.
"Get the fuck off me! What the hell are you doing?!"
Steve immediately recognized the voice. He also noticed the blood slowly dripping from a cut above Danny's right eye as well as his tense, pained expression and quickly rushed to his friend's side.
"I got him, you can let go…" As soon as Danny had pushed himself up and away from the intruder, Steve hauled the guy roughly to his feet.
"Get up! Get UP!" Pushing him against the nearest wall, he started patting him for weapons. "What happened, Danny…?" Briefly glancing over at his friend, he saw him standing slightly hunched while accepting a kitchen towel from Chin to hold against his still bleeding wound.
"He broke into my apartment. And I'd actually like to report him now."
"Hey!" The guy started struggling again. "I didn't break in… I just came for a visit!"
Steve roughly shoved him into the wall again, pressing against his neck from behind, then leaning in close. "Shut UP, asshole! I hear one more word out of you, I'm gonna start using you for some target practice…"
"Steve…" Danny's placating tone was easily outvoiced by an obnoxious echo from his assailant.
"Yes, Steve… your partner's a fag. You really want the whole island to know about that?!"
Steve pulled him back slightly, only to smash him into the wall again with even more force this time, barely holding on to the last shreds of his professional restraint.
"I'll start parading around in a rainbow jumpsuit if that's what it takes," he snarled back angrily. "So if you think we'll keep this on the downlow because we're embarrassed... think again. I don't give a flyin' fuck who knows about this. You're going to jail, my friend. And by the way, I'm not doin' well with threats, in case you hadn't noticed." He increased the pressure he was using on the other man's neck some more, trying really hard to not lose it completely.
"Steve," this time it was Chin who calmly addressed him from behind. "I've got him. – Why don't you just let me take him to HPD? You can bring Danny in for an official statement tomorrow…"
Taking over from Steve, he could feel the guy stiffen at his words. "You can't be serious!"
Chin just smiled at the panicked protest. "Oh, we're serious… You know what's also very serious? Assaulting a police officer. And you know what's both serious and stupid? Assaulting a friend of Commander McGarrett here... But I'm sure you've already figured that out yourself." With that he simply started rattling off the guy's rights while pushing him towards the door none too gently.
Steve took a second to calm down a little, before carefully approaching his friend who had in the meantime sunken down on his couch, still holding the towel loosely against the side of his face.
"Danny…" Crouching down in front of the other man, Steve slowly reached for it, then hesitated slightly. "I'll just take a quick look, okay?" He didn't really know why he suddenly felt the need to ask for permission like that.
Waiting for Danny to nod slightly, he carefully lifted the towel away from the wound. Gently inspecting the damage for a minute, he finally searched his friend's tired gaze. "The cut doesn't look so bad, but it could do with a few stitches… How are you feelin', buddy? Any dizziness or nausea?"
"No… I'm fine, Steve."
The team leader couldn't suppress a somewhat pained smile at the typical self-assessment, taking in his partner's overall battered appearance with another critical glance. "You're not fine, Danny. You got any broken ribs?" He nodded towards his partner's right side that he'd been clearly guarding earlier.
"Nah… don't think so. Just bumped them a little when we both went down," he vaguely gestured into the direction of his former couch table, that currently lay shattered to pieces in the middle of the living room.
Steve followed his gaze and nodded in understanding. "Kay… let me see." He pushed Danny to lean back slightly, then pulled his shirt up to inspect the already bruising parts of his torso. Gently feeling the lower ribs first, he then started to carefully palpate the surrounding parts of his belly, stopping when Danny suddenly flinched slightly at the tentative probing.
Steve immediately locked eyes with him. "Think you may have cracked a couple of ribs, but your stomach feels soft, so that's good."
Despite everything, Danny couldn't help but smile slightly at that. "Soft, huh? Sounds like I'll have to up my morning crunches then, I guess…"
Steve returned a small smile. "No, no, soft's good in this case, Danno… means there's probably no internal bleeding." Then, more seriously again: "Anything else hurting…? What about your arm?" He nodded towards the cast that was clearly cracked along the back of the hand and lower part of the wrist.
"No idea. Probably hit it on something as well. Can't really remember right now..."
Reaching for the hand and gently turning the arm slightly to take a better look, Steve immediately interrupted the movement when Danny made a distressed sound and winced heavily in obvious pain. – That clinched it.
"Okay. Come on, buddy… let's get you to the ER; you need an x-ray."
"No! Steve. Just give me a minute… It's really not that bad."
The Navy SEAL couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. "Your shriek of pain begs to differ… That arm wasn't nearly as painful before."
Danny glared at him defensively. "It wasn't as painful because you've never yanked it like that before. – And it wasn't a shriek by the way…"
Another eye-roll. "I didn't yank it. I was actually being very gentle. – And now come on, Danno. Let's just get you checked out properly. I bet it'll only take an hour at most. And we need an injury report anyway…"
There was that.
They were on the road again five minutes later.
