Thank you so much for all the reviews. They made me smile lots and I NEARLY weakened and put on another last night. Instead, to celebrate the start of Season 6 (for some lucky people...not me unfortunately), I've stuck two chapters together for today. See if you can spot where the mean cliff-hanger was...
CHAPTER 6
Kono gripped her phone, pressing it to her ear as she stared down at Dr. Collins with complete hatred and disgust. The man wiped blood from his mouth with a shaking hand. He glared back at her defiantly and made a move to get up, but Chin stepped forwards, slamming him back down onto the floor with his boot. Lou stared down at him, arms folded and lips thin, furious.
"Steve?" Kono walked smartly away from Collins when their leader answered his cell, moving out of the disgraced doctor's earshot.
"Kono, speak to me. What you got?" Steve sounded terse. She could hear the roar of the Silverado's engine in the background as he sped along, searching desperately for Danny.
"Steve, where are you?"
"I'm heading to Rachel's. I figure his first stop has to be Gracie, right? I can't get them on their cells, I'm not sure where…"
Kono shook her head, her beautiful brown eyes frantic with worry. She cut in, stopping Steve mid-sentence. "Steve, listen, they've been messing with his head, okay? They've been pumping him full of drugs- scopolamine, LSD, barbiturates, some things I've never even heard of. They've told him he was in a coma, that he was mentally unstable when he came out of it so he's been locked up for years and that it all started because…because he was responsible for an accident that killed you." Kono's voice started to waver. "They told him he has no one left, no one could forgive him so he's lost all of us. And Rachel took Grace away to England, he's not even allowed to talk to her. Gracie hates him."
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment as Steve tried to absorb what she was saying. "Oh my God, Kono, that's…"
She cut back in. "They've been thorough, Steve. They've edited together videos of some car crash, there's pictures of you but you're all messed up. It really, really looks like your body in Danny's car, I'm not kidding. And there's a clip of some kid that looks a whole lot like Gracie shouting, saying she's scared of him, doesn't want to see him again. Steve, there are mocked up photos of your autopsy. There are newspaper articles about what supposedly happened, all blaming him."
She could hear Steve let out a shaky breath. "Shit. Oh shit, that's so bad. If he's believed all of that, any of that…."
"You've got to find him, Steve. But if he believes any of it, even if he's not sure, I don't think he'll go to Rachel's. I think he's going to look for you. And they've been pumping him full of this…stuff. He's going to have no idea what's going on. Steve, please, you've got to get to him, he needs to see you."
There was a pause and Kono could hear the tires of the Silverado shrieking as Steve made a turn.
"So chances are he's going to head for the Palace. Or mine. I'm five minutes away from my house, I'm heading there. But if he's gone to mine. Shit, Kono, I've barely been home for weeks. He might think…"
"I know." Kono's voice was trembling. "Ok, you go to yours, we'll head to the Palace. And Steve, you were right. Collins was paid to do this to Danny. It was Ramirez. He's set all of this up, leased the whole top floor, bought Collins. He picked him because Danny had met him, he knew he was a doctor so he'd be more likely to believe him. They were trying to get Rosa's location out of him, the whole thing was about her. But Danny didn't give it away. That's what those men on the stairs were talking about."
"No. No, of course he didn't. He's way too smart for that."
Kono smiled at the fierce pride she heard in her boss' tone. "I know. Steve, Duke was here, HPD are out looking too and he's got a marked car near yours, he's sent it there."
"What? No! No. Danny's armed, Kono. Tell them to hold off, do you hear me? He's scared and he's armed and we don't know how he's gonna react. I can't take the risk that someone will hurt him."
Kono's stomach dropped as she realized the mistake they had made. "Steve, I'll try but I think it might be too late. They were right around the corner. I think they're already there."
….
Danny's head jerked up. He had zoned out again, had lost himself in the memories of Chin, and Kono, and Lou, and Rachel, staring down at him with hate and disgust on their faces. Grace, looking at him in fear, then running to hide behind her mother. Steve yelling at him, pleading with him to stop the car, trying to grab the wheel. A blinding pain in his own head. Blood on his hands. Steve's blood. Steve's limp body in the passenger seat of the wrecked Camaro. People screaming, crying. His own voice, angry, yelling and threatening, mean and nasty, getting worse and worse until they had to tie him down. Until everyone left him.
He raised his gun and turned it, looking into the bottomless void of the barrel.
"Stop! Put down your weapon!"
Danny frowned in confusion then, looking up and trying to focus. There was a man in front of him, between him and the sea. He had materialized as if from nowhere. He couldn't make out the face but he knew the uniform- he was HPD. He must hate Danny too.
"Detective Williams, put the weapon down."
Danny squinted. The officer was pointing a gun at him. No wonder. Danny was dangerous. They were scared of him. They wanted to take him back. Back to the hospital to tie him down to that bed again. Back to Collins and his questions. Back to being pumped full of drugs to keep him calm, to keep him quiet and alive and alone. But he didn't want that life. He wanted the life he had lost. The life he had destroyed when he killed his own best friend.
A tear ran down his cheek. He knew there was only one way out. But he knew there was more than one way to achieve it.
He raised his gun, hand shaking violently, and took aim at the police officer.
…..
Steve gritted his teeth as he floored the throttle of the Silverado, the lights of the nighttime cityscape flashing past him in a blur. His heart pounded with fear for his partner. He smacked the steering wheel in frustration because his vehicle just wouldn't go any damn faster.
"Shit, Danny. What are you thinking, partner? Shit!" he hissed.
Steve was more than familiar with the drugs Kono had said Collins used on Danny. He'd had first-hand experience courtesy of Wo Fat. He remembered vividly how real the dreams, hallucinations-whatever- had been. But the world created by Steve's own mind had been a refuge. A tranquil escape from the torture he was being subjected to. Danny had been force fed a vision of hell. The things they had told Danny could be enough to destroy him.
Steve shook his head. Danny had to have had doubts. He must have or he would have given Rosa away, wouldn't he? Or was that just his cop's instinct making him keep that to himself no matter what the circumstances. He prayed Danny had had doubts, that he hadn't bought Collins' nightmare package. If he had…he would think he had nothing left to live for.
Steve had to find him. He had to tell him it wasn't real, it was as simple as that.
The minutes it took him to reach his home felt like an age. Finally reaching his destination, he brought his vehicle skidding to a stop, heart in his mouth. His breath hitched as he took in the scene. The car that Danny had stolen was there- driven straight through his fence and onto the front lawn. He had come here! But the HPD car was there too. He had been too late to stop that from happening.
Steve jumped out of his car and froze, listening anxiously, his hands squeezed tightly into fists, his stomach churning with dread. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face. He could hear nothing. He realized his front door was lying open and sprinted up to it, pausing in the doorway. "Danny?" he called. There was no response, no noise at all. He started to search through the rooms frantically, shouting his partner's name as he went.
A noise from the back garden stopped him in his tracks. He looked up, out through the glass of his lanai doors. He cried out in dismay at the scene that was unfolding by the beach in front of him, lit up in shades of blue and silver by the full moon. "Danny! No!" he yelled out as he saw his partner, swaying drunkenly, raise his gun and level it at a lone police officer.
Steve threw the door open and burst through it, breaking into a run, his arms pumping as he sped towards them, desperate.
The cop had ducked down and raised his own gun. "Put it down or I'll shoot!" He yelled.
"No! Hey! Don't shoot! Don't shoot him!" Steve screamed out as he sprinted towards them.
Danny didn't react at all to Steve's presence, didn't seem to hear him. He was focused on the man in front of him, his chin raised defiantly, daring him to shoot. In that instant Steve knew what his partner was trying to do and his blood ran cold.
The cop turned round towards Steve in confusion, eyes widening as he saw the Five-0 commander thundering towards him. His face was young and uncertain. Inexperienced. That was probably the only reason Danny wasn't dead right then, because any seasoned cop would have just taken him out.
"Go! Wait out front." Steve barked at the cop as he reached them, his eyes fixed on his partner. "I'll handle this." The cop nodded gratefully and ran off.
Steve took a deep breath, taking a moment to assess Danny's condition. He could have cried. Danny looked terrible, so thin and so weak and so desperate. His eyes seemed to be looking at Steve but they were unfocused. There was no light of recognition there. His stance was determined and purposeful yet he looked dazed and entirely confused, his breaths fast and panicked. His hand shook with the effort of holding up the gun but, stubborn to the last, holding it up he was. And now it was pointed straight at Steve.
"Danny?" Steve's voice was gentle as he walked closer to his partner, trying not to startle him. He came to a halt a few steps away, eyeing the weapon cautiously.
Danny jerked at the softly spoken word, trying to focus on the cop he thought was still in front of him, wondering vaguely why he hadn't been put out of his misery yet. The features on the pale face slowly resolved themselves into an identifiable pattern. He stared in complete and utter disbelief at the mirage that materialized before him, illuminated in the pale moonlight. It looked just like Steve.
No sooner had the realization hit him than a merciless flurry of white flashes struck. Danny moaned in distress, staggering as he fought to stay on his feet while a catalogue of images of Steve spun by him. Steve begging him to stop the car. Steve's cold, dead, blood-stained face. Steve lying on Max Bergman's table, Y-incision stitched up after his autopsy. Danny let his head sag down until the images passed, still fighting to hold the gun up because he had fundamentally no idea what was really happening around him and the weapon represented literally the only control he had left over his life. The only thing that stood between him and the promise of spending the rest of his days in that room, that prison, alone.
He opened his eyes again. He still saw Steve there, but the images he had just seen in his mind seemed every bit as real as what he thought he could see in front of him right at that moment. He brushed a hand roughly over his eyes, trying to clear his vision, certain his sub-conscious had simply chosen to torture him with yet another vision of the man he had killed. Certain the faceless cop was still there, waiting to take him away. Then he frowned, realizing the mirage was talking. He tried to listen, to make out the words.
"Easy, Danny, easy. You're safe now, buddy. Put the gun down."
Danny gasped in shock because the voice sounded just like that of his lost friend. He shook his head in denial, staring hard at the man in front of him now and trying to understand. He could see Steve's face, solid and alive. He could hear his voice and he sounded so, so real. Danny gritted his teeth, feeling the stabbing pain of loss again, of knowing he would never really see the man he loved like a brother again. His mind was simply supplying him with the images he wanted to see, he knew that, because he knew Steve was gone.
Still he couldn't look away. Steve's hands were held out to his sides, showing he was unarmed, he meant no harm, as if Danny was a cornered animal. Danny finally dared to make eye contact, terrified that Steve's expressive eyes would be filled with hatred and accusation. They weren't. Fear and compassion was all he could see and it made his own eyes sting and fill because he really wanted this to be real, so badly. But it was impossible. It couldn't be.
But for all he couldn't be real, here was Steve in front of him and Danny had something he needed to say.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he croaked, a tear running unchecked down his face.
Steve shook his head, his own eyes shining brightly. "No, Danny, you've nothing to be sorry for, you've done nothing wrong," he rasped.
Danny shook his head, face crumpling. His gun hand wavered, just a touch.
Steve moved a step closer. "Danny, you listen to me," he said, voice trembling with emotion, "this is real. I'm here. Look at me! I'm not dead, buddy. Collins lied to you. He drugged you and he lied to you. It was a trick. He was working for Ramirez. They wanted to know where Rosa was so they tricked you. Do you hear me Danny? Just nod if you hear me."
Danny nodded mutely, another tear tracking down his cheek because he could hear it, but he couldn't accept it. He didn't trust himself, his own perception. But he wanted to believe it. He glanced up towards Steve's house, remembering what he had seen, remembering why this couldn't be true.
Steve saw him and understood. "Danny, whatever you saw in there, it's because I've not been home for weeks. I've been looking for you, buddy. You understand? I've just not been here."
Danny stared at him, still not daring to believe. "I-I don't know what's real." he choked out helplessly.
Steve's heart twisted at his partner's torment. "I know," he said, wavering voice gentle but firm. "It's the drugs, partner. But this is real. This is me, okay? Come on, trust me. You know me." Steve held out his hand. "Let me help you."
Danny didn't dare reach out, he wanted to so badly but he simply couldn't make that leap. His breaths came raggedly and his gun hand shook. He watched, wide, frightened eyes full of doubt, still convinced the apparition would disappear only to be replaced with that cop. Maybe even Collins himself, waiting to fill him with drugs and tie him down again.
Steve nodded in acceptance. "It's okay. I'll come to you. Trust me." His eyes were fixed on Danny's, willing him to see, to take a chance. Blowing out a calming breath, Steve took one cautious step closer, then another. He was close enough to make a grab for Danny's gun now, but he didn't. He didn't try to take the one thing that stood between his partner and complete vulnerability. He took another step, straight past the weapon wavering in the outstretched hand. He reached up to touch Danny's cheek.
Danny gasped at the warm contact.
"It's over. Everything's okay now," Steve whispered tenderly, looking earnestly into Danny's bleary eyes, praying his partner would finally accept what he was seeing.
Danny let out a whimper, defenses finally starting to crumble now he could feel Steve. His warm skin, his breaths. He was breathing. That had to mean….
Steve grabbed him by the nape of his neck. He pulled Danny into an embrace, gripping him hard.
"Steve?" Danny murmured, shocked.
Steve nodded. "Yeah, Danno, it's me. I've got you, buddy, I've got you." He huffed out the words against Danny's head, eyes squeezed shut, every effort going into holding his partner tight, keeping him safe now he finally had him back.
Danny could feel Steve's strong arms around him, he could smell his familiar scent, he could hear his deep voice, hear the reassuring words he was murmuring. Danny finally, finally started to accept the truth. He let out a strangled noise and wrapped his arms around his friend, gun falling to the ground. He held on for grim death, fingers clutching at the material of Steve's shirt. He shook violently, silent, shocked tears slipping down his cheeks. He buried his hot, wet face against Steve's chest, feeling entirely overcome.
It was all too much. The effects of the drugs in his system swept him up again and combined with a long overdue adrenaline crash and complete physical weakness to leave him utterly done. His knees sagged. He could still hear Steve's voice, as if from a great distance. He sounded panicked now, calling out Danny's name. Danny wanted to stay with him more than anything, but the world was pulling away from him rapidly. He felt like he was falling, back towards the darkness, back towards oblivion.