Hi everyone! I started this story about 2 years ago, and never got it finished! Life literally got in the way, but I finally have time to finish it off. I have looked at some of the comments and edited a few sections slightly. I am doing this for each chapter, then I will produce the final 2. Please bear with me though; I've forgotten how to use this site - ha!
Errors are my own, and feedback is welcome!
I own nothing. As much as i would like to own them all. I'm just going to borrow them, put them in my story, maybe bash them about a bit... I am no medical expert, and I have made things up to suit the purpose of this story throughout - so please don't be disappointed with inaccuracies :)
Reviews welcome. I am not sure if this will work... we'll see how we get on :)
Italics indicate a thought... (just so you know)!
Danny drove out the lot of the hospital with waves of anger radiating off his body. For once he was behind the wheel of his own car with his partner alongside him in the passenger seat. For a brief moment he wished it was the other way around. He wanted nothing more than to slap his partner silly and demand an explination for the situation.
"Danny..."
"Don't!" the words flew from his mouth tainted with anger, "Not now Steve. Just give me 5 to sum things up here. OK? I am thinking... no scratch that... I don't know what to think... I'm not thinking straight and I'm not even the one with the damn concussion."
Danny's voice had gotten louder as the words flowed from his mouth, and it was all Steve could do not to wince and retreat into himself and it certainly was not helping his concussion. He wanted Danny to understand his position, but there would be no getting through to him at this stage. Knowing better than to try and speak back to his partner, he sat in silence. Danny's heavy breathing replaced his words.
The silence was interrupted by a phone call on Danny's cell. Pulling the phone to his ear he demanded "What?". It was harsh, but assuming it would be Chin or Kono he knew he could apologise later. Instead he was greeted by the little voice of his 8 year older daughter.
"Danno? Are you mad at me for ringing?"
His demeanour changed immediately, the love for his little girl flowing out. He was thankful for the change in atmosphere. "Hello monkey. No, no of course not. I'm sorry sweetheart. I'm just having a tough day. I'll give you three guesses why... you'll only need one!"
"Uncle Steve"statement, not question.
"Exactly monkey, Uncle Steve." Danny threw a glance at his partner before putting his eyes back on the road, "Now how did you know that? You could be a detective!"
A giggle came down the phone, "Silly! It's easy! You always say Steve is giving you grey hairs".
Steve was able to hear Grace's voice, and he snickered a little. This earned him another glare from his partner. "You know Gracie, your right. You don't need to be a detective to know that. You just need to know Steve and his antics." He breathed heavily, "Why are you calling anyway sweetheart?"
"Well I was speaking to a girl called Jenny at school, and she said that there was this really great place to go in the hills and you could see all of Oahu, and lots of wildlife. I wanted to ask if we could do that this weekend Daddy."
"That sounds great Gracie. We'll have to do a little bit of research though so we can find it!"
"Well, yeah! But if Uncle Steve came, he will know." Another glance to the side.
"Yes, well. If I make it through today with him, I will ask him! How does that sound?"
"Thanks daddy! I'm excited! I will look on my computer to see what I can find, and you can ask Uncle Steve!"
"OK. That sounds great Gracie. Listen, Monkey, Danno loves you very much, but I have to go."
"Ok Daddy. I love you too."
The call disconnected.
Steve was still grinning from the passenger seat, but that soon changed as the call ended. The stale atmosphere was back. "Don't think just because my little girl loves you, that you're in mygood books".
Steve shook his head seriously. He understood why Danny was so angry. One text message had added to the confusion to a situation he already didn't understand. His outlook on a case, which technically hadn't even opened yet, had been changed.
They rounded a corner and the Palace was in sight. As he was turning into the parking lot, he looked at Steve. "Now... talk to me. Honestly!"
_
Kono and Chin looked up from the console they were working from. Raised voices were coming through the glass doors to the palace.
"Uh-Oh" Chin said, staring at the door. "This doesn't sound good!"
Kono stepped to her cousins side, also to look at the door and saw her bosses coming up the stairs. Danny's hands waiving around expressing his anger, and Steve's hand still, by the side of his body, his face expressing how he felt.
Each man put their hands on a glass door, and pushed, hard. Had the doors not had pressure points to stop the doors slamming again the walls, Kono was convinced the glass would have smashed from the force.
The presence of the two cousins did not stop the partners from arguing.
"Because, Danny! I have to be careful who I talk to!"
"WHAT?" He exploded, "It's me!" He pointed his fingers sharply towards himself, "ME, Steven! What am I going to do, eh? Run to the Alioni and tell them your plans?"
Kono and Chin looked at each other quizzically, intrigued to find out what was happened. Danny gave them a sharp warning look, while Steve gave them an apologetic one. They moved passed and walked into his office. Steve held the door open for Danny, who ducked under his arm into the office.
"Danny, I don't mean you!" He sighed heavily, letting go of the door, running his hands through his hair, "Look! I was going to tell you everything! "
"Well, took your dam time about it didn't you? 2 dam years almost..."
"Danny will you just..."
"Just what? Shut up? Keep my nose out?"
"Just stop being so god dam irrational. This isn't about you..." the second the words were out of his mouth, he regretted it. He looked up to the ceiling frustrated! He wanted to explain, rationally, that he was going to bring Danny into the picture, the timing just hadn't been right!
"Oh, I'm sorry? Irrational? Me?" He gestured to himself again, before clasping his hands together, "I'll tell you what partner! You try finding someone you work with day in, day out unconscious in an alley, with a million and one bits of so called evidence which just doesn't match up. And THEN..." he looked out the window knowing that the cousins, although looking like they were hard at work, were listening, "I find out that my partner, my best friend, my brother has been involved in bringing down a drug ring. ALONE! His team know nothing about it. Lying to me..."
"not lying..."Steve mumbled whilst Danny continue to talk.
"...from the start! How would you react? Hey?" He poked Steve in the chest! "That's rhetorical. Don't answer that! Don't say anything!"
"Look Danny... I'm sorry... I'm telling you now."
"You know what... no... Forget it. I'm not even in the mood to talk to you." Danny headed towards the glass door of Steves office, and pushed it open before turning back to Steve, "I'll be in back in 10 minutes. I... I need to clear my head. Then you and I, are going to sit down rationally and speak about this, ok?"
"Alright," Steve held his hand up in surrender. He knew there was no point in arguing with the blonde when he was frustrated. "I really am sorry, Danny."
"I know." Was the quiet response he received as he left the office.
Rubbing his face with his hands, he stepped into the main office, where Chin and Kono were no longer hiding their concern and interest in the conversation.
"Is that true, boss? You're on an undercover op?"
"No, Kono. I'm not on the op, but I am involved. Can we wait till Danny is back? So I can explain it all to you then?"
Knowing better than to answer back, she nodded. Steve took the opportunity to speak to the cousins about the afternoon, and what the doctors at the hospital had said. He told them about the drug in his system unaware of how it got there, and briefly what he remembered about the afternoon. "Danny mentioned that you might have found something?"
Kono nodded and gestured the screens. Steve turned to see video footage and several bits of information scattered across the hi-tech consoles and waited for Kono to talk.
"Chin got these videos off a phone. A group of kids happened to be in the location at the right time. Although they claimed to see nothing, the phone picked up a few things." Three stills came up on screen. "I have isolated these particular images as each should show us faces of people involved. Charlie is helping me clean this up so I can work on getting an ID." Steve nodded.
Chin took over, "We have three shots here. The first," he brushed his hand over the console that stood about 2 and half feet tall in the middle of the main office, and an image appeared on one of the main screens on the wall. Steve walked towards it to get a closer look, "Is the gang prior to being split. We can see your car in the back ground. 5 males, and 1 female."
Another brush of his hand on the console, "The second image. Your moving towards the group as they are exchanging something..."
This time Kono continued, "Charlie is going to help me clear the noise out of this image, and we will see if we can identify anything on, or in, the package." With a sweep of her hand she pulled the last image up on screen, "And finally we have the group splitting. We have clearer visual of these two," she pointed at the screen, "who we couldn't see before. I'm hoping that we can identify at least 4 out of the 5 males.."
"You're going to pass all this over to Walker at HPD?" Steve asked, receiving a grin from Kono and a grimace from Chin.
"Yeah boss. Already on it!" She nudged her cousin with her elbow. Steve let a smirk settle on his face guessing that she had just won some sort of bet.
"Ok. Great, well done. This is a good start." Steve walked past all three screens studying the images closely, "So can we get anything else from this while we are looking?"
Hearing the main doors swing open, Steve glanced to see Danny walking back into the office. Obviously having heard Steve's final comment, he suggested. "Why don't we sit down and you tell us what's happening? This way, we can make sure as a team that we are looking for the right bits of information."
Steve walked towards his partner and patted him on the back. "Sorry Danny", his whispered. He could feel that the tension had slipped from Danny. His 10 minute break had done him well.
He gestured for his team to walk into his office. Danny moved in last, smiling up at Steve as he passed. He knew his anger could get the better of him, and now that it was out of his system he would listen to Steve's explanations; sensibly. He knew that Steve couldn't freely tell this information to his team in the past, but he could now and that was what counted.