With warm birthday wishes for Niceluvsfanfic. Happy Birthday my friend. I hope you enjoy this.

"You OK?", Steve had turned to look at this partner when he heard him say the CIO's name. Now watching the color drain from Danny's face, Steve grew concerned and walked over to stand by his friend's side. "Danny?", he asked again.

"She's in trouble, Steve," Danny's voice had an edge of panic. "Somebody tried to run her off the road. Now I can't reach her." Steve's face clouded with concern that almost matched Danny's.

"Danny," it was Kono's voice. She had overheard the conversation and was quickly typing on her tablet. "EMS and police were dispatched 2 minutes ago based on a call from Onstar. The location is Marker 64 of the Queen Liliʻuokalani Highway."

Danny swallowed the fear that rose up in his throat, almost choking him. "Any injuries or...'" he stumbled on the word, "...fatalities?"

Kono shook her head. "No reports yet."

"I need to get there," Danny said looking at Steve. He desperately needed to be there, to be doing something, to help, to make sure that Denise was OK and safe. He would not have been able to put words to his feelings, even if he had thought about them. What he was feeling was almost instinctual and beyond reason; he needed to get to Denise.

Steve nodded, his eyes full of understanding. Danny saw the look, but could not be bothered interpreting it or what in his own behavior was driving it. He just wanted to get out there. "Call when you know something," Steve said as Danny was running out the door with his keys. "Let us know if you need anything."

Danny gunned the car onto the freeway and raced through traffic with his lights and sirens on. When traffic began to snarl even worse than the usual evening traffic, he knew he was getting close and began to crane his neck to see if he could see ahead, beyond the seemingly unending line of cars. What he was able to see caused his heart to sink.

Smoke. Thick, black, oily smoke. He honked and turned on his siren again. When that did not help, he drove along the embankment. He saw the flares that the officers set up to guide traffic around the debris. He saw broken glass and then pieced of metal; a part of a fender, a door knob, part of a tire.

When he saw it, his heart almost stopped. In the middle of the freeway, with police guiding traffic around it and surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances, he saw Denise's BMW...or what was left of it. The blue car, was laying on its roof. All the windows were shattered and smoke was pouring from inside. The firefighters were still spraying it and the fuel leaking from the cracked gas tank with foam. Several ambulances stood at the ready. He got out of his car, absent-mindedly flashed his badge at the uniforms and walked toward the wreckage. If it was possible, Danny's heart dropped even lower. Where was Denise?

He looked around, turning a full cirlce taking in the scene. His heart was racing with a fear he could not name. "Danny!"

The familiar voice brought him up cold as he turned toward it and saw Denise running toward him. In a moment and without him realizing it, she was in his arms. Her face buried in his shoulder as he held her tightly his cheek resting on the top of her head. At first he thought that she was shaking, but then he realized that he was shaking as well. Why? Fear? Relief? He did not know, and right now did not care. Denise was alive and she was here. She looked awful, bruised all over with a nasty cut on her chin that the paramedics had been trying to cover when she saw him. But she was OK. Danny felt his arms tighten involuntarily even as he felt weak with a wave of relief he could not quite understand.


The first clear memory that Denise had after being hit that last time, was laying down on what turned out to be a gurney. Several faces were floating above her and if she focused she could understand what they were saying. "Vitals are normal. Looks like she's coming to.." A man's voice. "Ma'am..are you OK. Do you know you name.

A flash of irritation, "Of course I do. I'm Denise Evans. The year is 2014 and Barak Obama is President. Can I please sit up?"

A silence ensued that Denise took to be consideration, then the same man, "We'll help you sit up...slowly. Let us know if you feel dizzy or sick."

Denise sat up and for a moment did feel a wash of dizziness, but that was likely because she caught a glimpse of what had happened to her car. "Oh my God...," she whispered.

"Yeah," a female voice. "You were lucky, ma'am. Several off duty Marine's were on their way in to town and they stopped to pull you out and stayed with you until help arrived."

Denise tried to swing her legs over the side of the gurney and found to her relief that although she was sore as hell, everything seemed to work.

She felt a hand, reach for her head and a bright light flashed into her eyes as the man, a paramedic, Denise now realized, checked her for signs for a concussion.

"Pupils are reactive. Patient is conscious and coherent," he reported into his radio.

What the hell happened? Why? All manner of questions were spinning in Denises head. She heard more sirens and turned toward the sound as a Camaro stopped in front of the wreck and somebody got out.

Denise was certain for a few minutes that she did have a concussion as she tried to focus her eyes. It couldn't be...he wouldn't have come all this way...would he?

Then he turned around and she knew for certain.

"Danny!" The cry escaped her lips before she could stop it. The next thing she knew is she was in his arms and he was holding her, his face buried in her hair.

I hope you liked it. I wanted to make this a bit special and an interlude as a treat. Now we need to figure out who wanted to hurt Denise and more importantly why? Please note, I put a stake in the ground on a year - I wanted it to be slightly earlier than where we are in the story so I have lots of things to catch up on still. Also, I have only the vaguest notion of the highway system in Hawaii, so I hope the locations make sense. Thank you as always for reading and please comment and review.