Hawaii Five-O - 1:30am Hawaii Time. 9:00pm the same day, Tokyo Time.

Day 2

It was strange to feel pride and horror simultaneously, but Steve was a living, breathing case of it as sure as he stood pressed against the clear wall, watching Wo Fat poke at Danny with a vicious cattle prod. Steve knew very well how painful being on the other end of the voltage was; it was nothing short of excruciating. So, the fact that Danny wasn't screaming, wasn't begging Wo Fat to stop, swelled Steve with a sense of adulation for his partner. But with every cracking flash of light against Danny's skin, it made him more desperate to find a way out, and Steve was inching ever closer to outright lying to Wo Fat just to get him to give Danny a break. Of course, once Wo Fat figured out the fib, Steve knew the man would punish Danny tenfold.

"What will it take, Steve?" Wo Fat let his arm fall, giving Danny a badly needed break as the cop panted, grunting harshly. Steve only glared between the two men. "Even if you don't know where she is, you and I both know that you have the connections to find out. So why don't you?" He danced the end of the cattle prod along Danny's stomach and tilted his head slightly, just enough to watch Steve's gaze flicker between him and his friend, equal parts hatred, worry, and desperation. The latter emotion was winning out, and Steve knew it. Wo Fat inched the prod below Danny's waist.

"Listen, listen to me, okay? Hey!" Steve got Wo Fat's attention, banging his fists on the wall. Benevolently, or at least as benevolently as the criminal could, he glanced up at Steve, a bored look on his face while the prod hovered dangerously close to Danny's thigh.

His clothed thigh.

"Even if I knew someone that had the information you're looking for, all of those people -all of them- are dark. They're quiet, you understand? They're out of reach! I can't-"

A sickening sizzle of electricity connecting with fabric and skin filled both rooms, and this time, valiantly as he tried, a pained yelp escaped Danny as he tried to kick Wo Fat away, but the prod was pushed just that much more into already charred skin. When it finally fell away, Danny's leg was actually twitching, and Steve could hear wheezing coming from the blonde.

He'd never felt more murderous in his life.

"Why don't you two talk it over. I'll be back." And their tormentor was gone.

"Danny – Danny, come on, deep breaths, breathe through it, Danno." Steve surprisingly found himself thanking God that he could be here for Danny in this moment, to coach him through the brutality he'd endured the last few hours. Anyone who had ever suffered torture would have testified to wanting someone with them to guide them, steel their souls, give them hope. He watched, worried, as Danny's leg continued to spasm. Wo Fat had held the cattle prod there for quite a bit of time - how the clothing hadn't managed to catch fire, Steve would never know but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and while he wouldn't tell Danny until they were safe, Steve was certain that Danny would be dealing with permanent nerve damage. He zoned out, cataloguing all the various injuries Danny had suffered so far.

Gradually, Danny calmed, his breathing evened out, and he looked across the room at Steve. "No," he simply said.

"Danny-"

"I said no, Steve."

A frustrated growl erupted from the man on the other side of the wall, and Danny watched as the Navy SEAL, the Commander, Mr. In-Control-of-Any-and-Every Situation submitted his forehead to the partition. "He'll kill you, Danny."

"Yea, and if he finds your mom, then what? You think he's gonna have a tea party with her or something? Have a nice conversation over some crumpets?"

Steve pushed away from the wall, trailing his fingers roughly through his hair and down his neck. "She was CIA for years, she's spent the last 20 years globetrotting – she can handle him." Steady, hazel eyes met skeptical blue ones. Danny snorted derisively.

"She can handle him; like she handled him by letting him get away four years ago? She couldn't kill him then, what makes you think she could -would- do it now? You said it yourself: she raised him as her own son for a long time, Steve. If he found her, do you really think she'd be able to do it?" Danny waited for the answer, and it came in the form of a surrendered expression. He nodded.

"So, I'm making the choice for both of us. You've lost one parent because of him. You're not losing another, okay? Not because of me."

"Yea, and what about your parents, huh? They've already lost one son! What about Grace? What about Charlie? What about their dad? They still need you, Danny! I need you!" Steve paced back towards the wall, leaning against with his hands. Dammit, if he could just break through the barrier, get to Danny, he could get them out of here, he knew he could. It worried him how calm Danny was being right now. Their standard dynamic was Steve attempting to sooth a nervous and sometimes anxiety ridden Danny by prompting field line ups of the man's favorite baseball and football teams, but he hadn't had to do that just yet, and that scared Steve more than he cared to admit.

"He's going to kill me either way, babe – both of us, probably. You and I both know he's not letting either of us leave here alive. I know you don't know where they are; I know that, but do you really think he cares? So what, you have connections, you know people – Hell, I probably know one or two myself that you could call to get him what he wants. But I am not, I repeat -not- going to have your mother's murder on my conscience, okay? And you know that's exactly what will happen. I would never, and will never, ask you for my life over hers. I will not make you make that choice. Ever." Danny looked up, flexed his arms a little bit as he tried to get the feeling back in them. Hanging from the ceiling had rendered them practically useless and numb. "Borrowed time," he muttered. "It was always borrowed time."

Hawaii Five-O - 1:45am Hawaii Time. 9:15pm the same day, Tokyo Time.

Day 2

Joe may have been retired for a few years, but it seemed like he never could get very far away from Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Between favors, the occasional training seminar that he was asked back to conduct, and the craziness that Five-O got him involved with, Joe wondered if he shouldn't just petition Navy leadership for his position back.

As he slid out of his SUV and headed across the parking lot to one of the many buildings that civilians weren't shown on the regular tours, Joe dug out his phone and punched Kono's name in the contacts. Two rings later, and she picked up.

"He's still there," Kono confirmed. "How long do you think it will be before we hear anything?"

"With things like this, that's difficult to say, and this isn't a secure line," Joe paused just before heading into the building. "Once I relay the location, which will be in about five minutes, start the clock. I'll call once I know something." Punching the 'end call' button without waiting for a response, Joe headed inside and navigated his way through the labyrinth of hallways and stairs before arriving in a room that was currently a flurry of activity.

"Commander Austin," Joe lifted a hand to shake, ignoring for the moment the hustle and bustle that accompanied the atmosphere right before an operation began. "We all set to get our boys back?"

"We're ready on our end, Sir – just waiting for the final go ahead from Atsugi. We'll be relaying their feed through to our end to keep an eye on what's going on."

"Tell Atsugi Command that the location of the GPS marker has been confirmed."

"Yes, Sir." Commander Austin went to do just that, and he was back standing next to Joe relatively quickly after doing so. "It's all theirs. Our people have coordinated with Japanese intelligence. They've brought in a few other folks from agencies that they trust. Officially, this is Japan's operation since the target location is on their soil – we're just along for the ride to get our boys back while the Japanese apprehend Wo Fat."

"And unofficially?" Joe inquired.

"Joint operation to extract Commander McGarrett and Detective Williams. Wo Fat is deemed shoot to kill."

Before he could answer, Joe was interrupted by a young Navy man. "Sirs, excuse me; we're go."

Both men nodded, and Joe folded his arms over his chest as the video feed began rolling in. U.S. Navy, Naicho, and what Joe assumed were members of other agencies appeared on the screens, already enroute to the target coordinates. As he'd done so many times, the retired Lt. Commander got comfortable; the wait was always the hardest part.

Hawaii Five-O - 2:30am Hawaii Time. 10:00pm the same day, Tokyo Time.

Day 2

It'd been ten minutes since Wo Fat had returned to Danny, but instead of bringing a new method of interrogation with him – Steve quietly thanked God that the waterboarding hadn't started yet – he'd only brought a cell phone.

Danny's cell phone, to be exact. For those ten minutes, he paced back and forth in front of Danny, occasionally listening to something playing on the mobile. It wasn't on speaker, so neither Danny or Steve could hear what it was. Every so often, Wo Fat would swipe his thumb across the screen, accessing files, texts, photos – Danny wasn't sure. The only thing that he was sure of in that moment was that his panic level was beginning to rise once again.

Finally, Wo Fat pressed a button on the side of the phone a few times, swiped his fingers across the screen once more, and held the phone up at an equal distance between his two captives. His eyes were glued to Danny as a voice began to play.

"Hi Danno; I think there's an unmarked car sitting outside my house. They didn't really say anything to me when I got home, they just sat there. I guess I just want to make sure everything's okay. Love you, Danno."

It didn't take long at all for the defiance Danny had been showing for most of his stay to turn into desperation and out right, unguarded fear.

"You listen to me, you son of a bitch – if anything happens to my daughter, if your little bastard goons have touched my kids, I swear to God –"

"What?" Wo Fat smirked, looking at him like a man who knew he was about to get what he wanted, not caring in the least that Danny was in the beginning stages of an acute anxiety attack. He meandered over to Steve, holding the phone up to the screen which showed the timestamp of when Grace had called, a picture of her face next to the notification.

In that second, the power dynamic between Danny and Steve shifted. The latter no longer cared about honoring his partner's wishes, no longer cared about keeping silent about his mother's possible where abouts, or that of Wo Fat's father, or about anyone else who might know where they were. Steve would not – would never – put Grace's life in danger, or Charlie's for that matter, for any reason, and he wasn't about to have Wo Fat force Danny to beg him for his children's lives. There was a reason Wo Fat had chosen that moment to reveal the voice mail, and Steve was almost certain it was because he and Danny had tested the criminal's patience as much as they would be allowed.

"Give me my phone," Steve relented quietly, looking Wo Fat in the eye. "I'll make the call." The knowledge that Wo Fat would probably kill both him and Danny as soon as he had the information he needed never gave Steve any pause. He would not risk Grace and Charlie. If Wo Fat had them, if he didn't have them – it didn't matter to Steve anymore. He had to operate under the assumption that both children were, at the very least, under the sadistic bastards 'supervision'.

"I thought you might." Steve watched as Wo Fat reached into his other pocket and dragged out another cell; Steve's mobile. "Walk towards the door," the man instructed as he stepped back and put both phones in one hand while his right hand reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out one of his guns. Steve knew there was likely another one on him; there always was. "It will open. You will walk to your left and stand outside. The door to this room will open. You will walk in. The door will close. Please understand that if you take more than five seconds to reach the entrance to this room, I will shoot Detective Williams." Wo Fat strolled casually over to a control panel next to the door of Danny's room and pressed two buttons, and Steve heard the release of gears as his door slid open, revealing a grey, industrially lit hallway. He wasted no time, quickly moving from his room out into the hallway and appearing in the threshold of Danny's prison within the allotted timeframe. His hands were up as he stepped cautiously into the cell, eyes raking over Danny, taking stock of his current condition as best he could, and God, his heart broke. It was the first time Steve had seen Danny look defeated, apologetic even, as their eyes met. "Don't, Danny," Steve murmured calmly, saying everything that needed to be said in two words: This is not your fault; I don't expect you to risk your children for my mother; I wouldn't risk Grace and Charlie for her; I love your kids; I love you.

Steve resolved to himself that he was going to say those last two phrases whenever he could, as often as he could, if they ever got out of here.

Steve watched quietly as Wo Fat fished the phone out of his pocket. "Who are we calling?"

"Joe White," Steve muttered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Danny's head drop.

Wo Fat dialed the number, toggled the speaker function, and held it up at chest level between him and the SEAL as the dial tone began to ring. Joe picked up on the second queue.

"Hey champ, how's the weather?"

Steve couldn't have been more grateful for that greeting, because it meant that Chin and Kono had called Joe and that his former commanding officer knew fully what was going on. Inwardly, he was cheering. On the outside however, he remained as stoic and resigned as he'd been when he'd entered the room. Joe knew the call was being monitored, and in turn, Steve was ready to listen for those coded messages they'd used so often throughout their lives.

"Uh, the weather's… weather's not so good, Joe, listen; Wo Fat's got both me and Danny here, and we have reason to believe that he has people on Grace and Charlie." Steve took a breath. "Joe, if you know where my mother or Wo Fat's father is, I need you to tell me, okay? And if you don't know where they are, I need you to reach out to your contacts and find them, alright? Otherwise, Grace and Charlie's lives are in danger." There was a pause on the other end of the line, longer than Steve would have liked. "Joe?"

"Alright, Steve. Give me… 15 minutes, alright? You should hear something by then. Everything's 10-4, Steve. Everything will be fine, just wait for my word." The call was dropped and Wo Fat stepped back, a smirk lining his face. Steve had never wanted to snap someone's neck so badly in his life. "15 minutes, gentlemen. That's either how long you have to live, or how long you have to wait until you're released." He walked through the door and shut it, the lock clicking into place loudly in the small room.

"Joe knew," Steve muttered quietly, heading over to Danny and examining him quickly. He took care to press gently against his partner's chest and backed off when the man let out an uncomfortable moan of pain when Steve pushed particularly hard against a bruised, and likely cracked, rib. "15 minutes," he whispered through barely moving lips as he slid his fingers over some of Danny's bruises, inspecting the cattle prod wounds specifically. "15 minutes isn't near enough time for him to find out that information. He knows it, he knows I know it." Steve stood up, meeting Danny's gaze. "He said 'everything's 10-4'. Danny, that means everything is okay – they're sending a rescue, Grace and Charlie are okay, that's what that means. In fact, I think Joe even gave us a time stamp." And oh God, it looked like Danny wanted to believe him so badly.

"How do you know?"

"We developed coded messages, conversations that we could have when one or both of us were under duress; we all did in SEAL's, that's where it came from. That's why he answered the phone calling me champ, talking about the weather – he already knew we were in trouble. That means Chin and Kono contacted him. That's why I made sure to tell him about Grace and Charlie, Danno." Steve gently patted his hand against his friend's cheek, and he didn't miss the way Danny leaned into it for just a split second, and Steve didn't even think about letting it linger there just a moment longer either. In 15 minutes, they were either going to be rescued, or they were going to die; that very finite view of their future put things in quite a different perspective.

Steve lifted his hands to Danny's arms, which had to have gone numb by now from the hours of hanging he'd endured and squeezed gently from the blonde's shoulder to as high near his wrist as he could reach, trying to get the blood flowing again. "You know what?" He continued to speak in whispers.

Danny blinked tired eyes at him. "What?"

"We get out of here? I'm taking you on a date."

Generally, a man admitting to another man that he wanted to take said other man out on a date would have caused some tension to build, but the opposite was true in this case. In fact, it seemed as though nothing but relief flooded the space between Steve and Danny, and the detective's eyes actually crinkled with a bit of humor for the first time since he'd been captured. "Wow, babe; a date?"

Steve nodded, continuing his ministrations on Danny's arms.

"You know that means you have to bring your wallet too, right? And it has to have money in it, you have to drive your own car-"

"Yes to the wallet, yes to the money, no to the car. I'm driving the Camaro."

"Well, two out of three ain't bad."

Hawaii Five-O - 2:42am Hawaii Time. 10:12pm the same day, Tokyo Time.

Day 2

"In position. Awaiting go order."

"The order is given."

"The order is given. Go, go, go!"

It was operational chatter that Joe was so used to by now, but it was especially important that he hear it now. Once the go was given, he fished in his pocket for his cell and dialed Steve back, all the while watching the screen in front of him, tinted green due to the night vision. Timing was everything now, and he hoped that Wo Fat was with Steve at that moment, otherwise the ensuing conversation was going to be rather awkward.

Hawaii Five-O - 2:43am Hawaii Time. 10:13pm the same day, Tokyo Time.

Day 2

Wo Fat had returned to the room a few minutes prior to the 15 minute marker being up. There were no taunts, no threats, no witty back and forth. Steve placed himself directly between Danny and Wo Fat, and their captor didn't really seem to care, especially once Steve's cell phone began to ring. Wo Fat dug it out of his pocket and held it up, motioning McGarrett forward and accepting the call with one hand while the other confidently leveled one of his pistols right at Steve's chest.

"Joe."

"Howzit, champ?"

"Good so far, Joe. How's it coming on that info?"

"Sending it to your phone as we speak; ten seconds max."

It wasn't five seconds before Steve heard a sound that was distinctly not the alert of a message coming through the phone, and thankfully Wo Fat had also recognized that the noise was foreign to his environment. His head jolted upwards, eyes slid to look just over his shoulder as he attempted to identify just what it was that he'd heard.

It was all Steve needed to grab his gun arm at the bicep and wrist, twisting it hard and painfully enough to force the weapon to drop from his fingers. At the same time, Steve swung his leg behind his opponent's own dominant leg and he pushed the arm he still held back, forcing Wo Fat to the ground and instantly moving to straddle him. But Wo Fat was a master martial artist, and Steve very suddenly felt the sharp pain of an elbow crashing into his cheek, knocking him off balance and dazing him for a split second. Wo Fat took that opportunity to use his upper body strength to twist at the waist and force Steve to roll, to lessen his grip on the arm he'd originally had secure in his grasp, and from that point, it was on. Ever prepared, Wo Fat reached into his coat for the second firearm he usually kept on his person. Danny, unable to do anything else at the moment except watch, yelled out the warning.

"Steve, gun!"

It was virtually impossible to keep up with the flurry of hand to hand combat that was taking place, but Danny plainly saw the second gun fly out of Wo Fat's hand and skitter across the floor, and instead of going for the weapons, both Steve and Wo Fat settled in for close quarters combat. For every punch Steve threw, Wo Fat landed one of his own. For every block, there was a return strike, harder and faster than the initial one. But it was when Steve was pushed against the glass wall that Danny knew Wo Fat had made his fatal error, and the detective moved his legs, wiggling them a bit in the air as he watched Steve continue to spar with the man who Danny considered to the be the Bastard of the Year. It took only one moment of his eyes meeting that of his partner's and a quick nod from Danny for Steve to suddenly box Wo Fat's sides as if he were boxing a naughty child's ears, and shove him back…

…right into Danny's waiting legs, which quickly received and tangled around Wo Fat's body in a vice grip. His bad knee, which had taken the kendo stick dead on earlier, was protesting viciously, but Danny continued to squeeze. It seemed like a life time, but it was really only a matter of seconds before he watched as Steve surged forward, placed his hands on either side of Wo Fat's head, and quickly snapped his neck to the right. The sickening crunch of bones breaking and twisting in ways they shouldn't echoed throughout the room, and Wo Fat went limp, held up only by the strength of Danny's legs; the cop let him fall, and both he and Steve looked on as their tormentor's head bounced off the concrete. His body lay limp and Steve leaned over him, gingerly placing two fingers against the man's oddly cricked neck to feel for a pulse and letting out a harsh breath of relief after just a few seconds.

"Dead," he pronounced, taking a knee next to the body and searching any pockets he could find, finally coming up with the Danny's phone in one hand and the key to the cuffs in the other. He stood up, making for Danny, and it was only then, now that the haze of fighting had cleared, that they both could hear the commotion coming from outside the room. "Pretty sure that's the cavalry," Steve remarked, reaching up and unlocking the chains with the key he'd found on Wo Fat's body. He uncuffed the man carefully, easing the first arm down slowly and following suit with the second before wrapping an arm around Danny's waist to help shoulder some of his weight. "How's the knee?"

"Hurt's like hell, but I'll live." Danny nudged Wo Fat's body with a weary foot. "Sure he's dead this time?" When he didn't get an answer, he looked up at his partner and found that he was staring down at the body. "Babe; you alright?" The only response he got was a gentle squeeze from the arm around his waist.

Staring at Wo Fat's body was how the rescue team found them just a few moments later. After Steve and Danny had been identified as the packages, Steve scooped up his phone and blasted a text to Joe.

All good here. OTW home.

"Think there's a way we can keep him on ice?"

Steve blinked at Danny. "What?"

"You know so that one day, in the future, when we have the ability to bring someone back to life, I can kill him again just for the hell of it?" Danny looked half way serious, and all Steve could do was drop his head and laugh quietly as he helped the detective out of the room, the rescue team escorting them along the hallway towards freedom and home. "Your request is noted; acceptance is pending."

"Oh, you think you're funny, huh? Funny guy? Look, do me and the rest of Hawaii a favor, okay? Don't quit your day job."